WATERBURY BETA MOX TOURNEY REPORTS

[IAmFishMan]

That's right...58 people...I didn't think I would have enough space.  At any rate...the purpose of this thread is for tournament reports from this event.  (Even non top-eighters are welcome to share their stories).  After six rounds of swiss, the following top eight emerged.

Seed #1 Alex Crestfield (with TNT sportin blue) (Lord of the Goats)
Seed #2 Stephen Houdlette (with Gro) (Grand Inquisitor )
Seed #3 Ben Taraskevich (with Growatog) (No MANADRAIN Account)
Seed #4 Tom Goodwin (With Void) (No MANADRAIN Account)
Seed #5 Keith Johnson (With TNT) (CT Thespian)
Seed #6 David Bunnell (With Sligh) (No MANADRAIN Account)
Seed #7 Nick Tourloukis (With Growatog) (Bill The Duck)
Seed #8 Jared Demick (With 4 color Trix) (Wicketsnatcher)

Then the top eight panned out like this

Alex
vs-------------Alex
Jared
                     vs-------------Alex
Keith
vs-------------Tom
Tom
                                          vs-------------Alex
Ben
vs-------------Ben
David
                     vs-------------Ben
Nick
vs-------------Stephen
Stephen

TOURNEY REPORTS TO FOLLOW
THANKS
Ray

[CrazyCarl]

Wow, the g00ts 0wnz0rzed j00.

ph34r.

Edit: Congrats Lord of the Goats \n\n

[IAmFishMan]

Quote Wow, the g00ts 0wnz0rzed j00.

ph34r.

Damn dude...speak English...hehehe

[BigChuck]

Yeah. Congrats Alex.

I ended up 14th, only losing to Alex, and Steve. I'm too lazy to write a report, and I mostly just wanted to congratulate the goat. Next time though, no more silly gilded drakes!

[Anonymous]

Yeah goat!!!!!!

[urza's child]

Yeah congrats again LotG. I went sporting my Gro/Tog, along with a few other people (I was extremely sick with a temperature around 102    when I went so I had a fever going against me this whole day, which in the end, the fever mixed with greed, cost me a spot in t8). I was in first place, 3-0 in matches, 6-0 in game (and my last name beginning with "a" put me at rank 1) and then I made a mistake which cost me a spot in the top 8. I was playing a R/G Fires deck, it was 1-1 in games, I had a Berserk in hand, and a 'tog out. (If you were there at the tournament and heard play of the day you heard this, because it was me, I woulda easily made t8   )  I had enough cards in hand/graveyard plus the berserk to make my 'tog a 38/20 trampeler, against his ravenous baloth and birds of paradise. So I felt like bashing his face in even more and went for the overkill, and discarded my hand and removed all the cards from my graveyard at the same time, and then casted Berserk. He had one card in his hand, and what was it, and INCINERATE. So he killed my 'tog, I was in shock of my stupidity for a couple minutes, and then scooped. Because of this loss, I had to face RG TnT, where not ONLY did I get mana screwed both games, but I got no counter both games, which made me go to 3-2 and having no chance at t8. O well, I guess I'll just have to beat Alex in the finals next time and take my rightfully deserved mox... But congrats on the win again

[BillTheDuck]

It was a lot of fun for sure. I misplayed bad in game three with steve where I would have had a chance, but I probably would have lost anyway.

It sucks that the two Hadleys had to play each other so early in elimination, and also that I didn't get a chance to smash Jarad's face in.

I'll see you guys in Hadley on the 15th.
I would write a report if I wasn't lazy.

Props to Alex for winning, having an awesome shirt, having awesome tech, having awesone trike tokens, and having his tech be awesomely altered artistically.

Props to Ray for running it, giving me a free juice, and advertising for Hadley.

Props to Steve for giving me a ride.

Slops to the Keeper players for not putting up a fight, and not reading their own cards.

Slops to Jarad for not having better tiebreakers than me.

I'm done.

[Lord of the Goats]

First I’d like to thank Ray for running such a great tournament, I had a lot of fun and it seemed to me that everyone else did as well.  

My day actually starts at about 1:30am when I get home after I get home from seeing my girlfriend. I dial online to see if Nick (urza's child) or Brian (hulk3rules) are online to make sure they don’t need any last minute cards. Sure enough there’s Brian… and he still has no clue what he’s playing. My computer crashes after about 2 minutes though so I go to bed rather than waiting for it to reboot.

I wake up at 6:00 which is really odd since my alarm is set for 6:03 (because it’s a piece of shit from like 1950). Anyway I get up do the shower and breakfast thing, grab my deck, then wake up my dad who takes an hour to clean his car before we pick up James (piggy). We get there early anyway, and I see some kid with the best mullet ever. Nick finds me and we do some trading and I lone out half a set of power. i also find brian and ask what he's playing... he still doesn't know. On to the actual report:

I’m playing tnt with blue:

4 taiga
3 tropical island
4 wooded foothills
2 windswept heath
4 mishra's workshop
5 moxen
1 lotus
1 sol ring
1 grim monolith
2 forest

4 survival of the fittest
2 sylvan library
3 blood moon
1 ancestral recall
1 time walk
1 tinker
1 memory jar

4 jugernaut
4 su-chi
2 triskillion
1 masticore
4 goblin welder
1 wonder
1 anger
1 squee
1 genesis
1 gorrilla shaman

sb
3 red elemenay blast
2 naturalize
2 artifact mutation
2 bottle gnomes
1 gilded drake
1 waterfront bouncer
1 flame-tounge kavu
1 elvish lyrist
1 utkabi orangutan
1 masticore

a side note: waterfront bouncer is such amazing tech. it bouncer anything you could possibly want it to... tnt runs squee. it was largly untested prior to this tournament, and i was debating cutting it at the last minute. i'm happy i didn't

Round 1- 60 card battle of wits deck

This guy was nice, and he was definitely a casual player. Both games I saw 3 islands and a random blue enchantment that wasn't going to effect me. He really never put up a fight but I hope he had fun for the rest of the day.

I had 2 other tnt deck playing the mirror next to me. The one that won was g/r so I felt that if I faced him I had the advantage. He did well, and made top 8. I never ended up playing him.

1-0

Round 2 vs shaharazd.dec

Another cool guy, but this guy’s deck is among the most annoying I’ve ever seen. The highlights of this match include 9 games starting between game 1 and 2. In the first game I had about 10 damage on the board in every subgame so when I finally won one, the next game started on the end of his turn with him at about 10 and me with lethal damage and him tapped out. I ended 4 games in about 2 minutes. We ran out of time game 2, but the only win condition is his deck appeared to be millstone.

2-0

Round 3 vs gro-mask

We shuffle up for the first game and he agonizes over his hand a little and ends up mulliganing but going second whereas I mulligan twice and keep a 1 land hand. I go first and drop a workshop and then stall on land for 2 turn with no threats on the board. He drops a dryad and swings once but doesn’t have much gas to back it up. I finally get a land, which allows me to drop 2 jugs and a su-chi over then next 3 turns. His dryad is forced to chump and he dies a couple turns later.  

Game 2 I board as if I’m playing gro since all I say was a dryad and a couple cantrips. He smashes my face in with 2 dreadnaughts before I even know what’s going on.

Game 3 I bring in my artifact hate, as well as gilded drake and waterfront bouncer (which I thought about cutting right before the tournament). He starts off with 2 masks, which meet artifact mutation and naturalize. My survival meets with naturalize as well, but not before I get waterfront bouncer. He drops a dryad and I drop the bouncer. We sit there for a few turns until his dryad is big enough that I need to bounce it. He then drops a mask, a 1cc and a 2cc creature with 2 cards left in hand. I cast gilded drake on the following turn to get a dreadnaught, bounce it via my bouncer, and then steal the 2cc creature, which I think is probably a dryad. I’m pleasantly surprised that it’s another dreadnaught. I swing over next turn for the win even though he had natrulize.

3-0

Round 4 sligh

Sligh is always scary, and the first game was a real nail-biter. The game ended with me at 1 and him with an active scroll topdecking a mountain rather than a burn spell the turn before.

Game 2 he drops a cadets and I drop a welder. He wings and I block to steal the cadets. He calls a judge since he’s under the impression that they’ll both die. It was an honest mistake that really crushed him since he had to bolt the cadets later. In addition it really just too the wind out of his sails. Had he asked I would have let him take it back, but he didn’t ask so I didn’t offer. It was very sportsman like of him and I appreciated that he didn’t try to escape his mistake, so he gains a lot of respect in my book.

4-0

Round 5 vs r/g beats

This guy liked to play very quickly which forced at least one of his opponents (that I saw) make a mistake. I don’t like to play particularly quickly so I slowed it down.

Game 1 he gets an insane hand and has 3 phantom crentares, and saproiling burst by turn 5. My hand isn’t as good and jugs don’t trade well with any of those. When he has letal damage on the board Ray (the tc) says that we night have to re-pair. The kid is obviously upset because he’s about to win game 1. It doesn’t matter to me either way and we end up still being paired together so he takes the first game.

Game 2 my hand is equivalent to his first game hand and his creatures don’t block very well when wonder in my grave. I make sure to take my sweet time and play my game rather than letting him dictate the tempo of the game.

Game 3 I start off with a fetchland, 3 moxen and a grim monolith and a welder holding genesis and drawing a workshop. He gets a pretty quick hand and I draw 3 more lands in a row before I find wonder to chump and then triskilion. From there I use genesis to recur trisk every turn and shoot out 3 phantom centaurs, 2 birds, an elf, chump a blastoderm and a saproiling burst. He runs out of gas and I topdeck bottle gnomes to give myself some breathing room. I win shortly thereafter.

5-0

Round 5 vs sligh

ID, we both make top 8. I sit around for a while and get some food.

5-0-1

Top 8 vs 4 color trix (wicketsnatcher)

Game 1 I drop a turn 1 or 2 jug, which he answers with a rector and combos me out next turn.
Game 2, I keep a hand with 2 naturalize monolith, mox, 2 land and survival. I drop all my artifact mana first turn and he drops an aura of silence and 3 moxen. I tap the monolith to play survival through the aura and survival for shaman before survival dies. He drops bargain and I naturalize it eot so he can’t draw like 20 cards. After that he doesn’t have enough gas to deal with my fat which I have drawn into.

Game 3 I drop a first turn sol ring, a second turn blood moon and a third turn survival. I then fetch mox monkey and eat his jet. Later he plays an illusions but I eat the sapphire and beat him down before he can find an answer. he did make a mistake by playing the jet since he could have vampiric tutored for lotus and gone off.    

Wicketsnatcher is definitely a cool guy and I hung out with him later.

6-0-1

top 4 vs void

this guy beat a r/g tnt in his first top 8 match… I’ve tested the matchup and have found it to be almost unwinnable for void so I was very surprised. Anyway, game 1 I drop a first turn welder and a second turn jug. He drops 2 mishra’s and can’t find his second black source. I decide that I don’t want his factorys trying to trade with my jug so I cast a blood moon. He’s got nothing after that other than a shade that he has to tap out for… which is immediately met with a trisk counter.

Game 2 I’m a little low on lands, but I have a welder and a mox so I should be able to get some fat pretty easily. He drops void which I read to make sure that it counters spells rather than making them cost more so I can use it as a discard outlet to feed welder. I weld a couple guys in before he kills my welder via engineered plague. Unfortunately, the welder isn’t the problem anymore since there’s a su-chi and a jug staring back at him.
7-0-1

finals vs gro-tog

I had to wait a long time to play this match because the top 4 match had just started by the time I finished mine so I had about an hour to kill. I traded for a lotus and some other stuff and hung out with a few guys.

Before we play we discuss splitting for quite some time and negotiate with ray a lot since no one wants to be stuck with a judgement set for second. Anyway we decide that we’ll play 2 and if it’s tied after that then we’ll split.

Game 1 I come out with a lot of early fat and resolve a survival. he can't gro his dryad fast enough to kill me even though he has fastbond and I have wonder.

Game 2 I open with a sol ring and pass the turn. He drop a land and ancestrals. I drop survival which he forces then I walk, untap and drop a survival and a bouncer. I get anger soon after as well as squee and a welder. He wills, walks ancestrals, and finds submerge for the bouncer and a welder. I survival for the bouncer again and play it again. At this point he has no walk and I can get genesis if he kills the bouncer so from there I just cast fat until he dies.

Once again, thanks ray for holding the tournament and thanks to all of my opponents for being cool guys… i forgot all of your names and handles already, but that's just because i'm horrible with names.

team goat 4 L

[Grand Inquisitor]

Prologue:
It had been decided in advance that I would be giving rides to a few of the Hadley crew, Nick (BilltheDuck), Brian (hulk3rules) and Ben (?).  I also knew I was going into Boston Saturday night, and I was going to need an early start on Sunday.  I made sure to take it easy at the bars in Boston (well except for some 80’s slam dancing), but then my friend and I had the brilliant idea of driving back to western MA that night.  It was poor judgment in the first place, but when we ran into a snowstorm, things got worse fast.  Three hours of white-out conditions (just see the Ice Age card), a spin out, and 3 bottles of mountain dew and I finally limped off to bed at 5 in the morning.  I then got up at 8, showered off the fatigue and went to pick up the crew.  Its mornings like this I wish I drank coffee.

Warm Up:
We got to the tournament almost an hour before and got our shit together.  For me, who had been debating all weekend what type of blue-based control to play, this included furious sleeving and unsleeving and an illegible deck registration (I ended up playing my standard Emerald Alice, deck-list is at the bottom).  While everyone was
trading and catching up with friends, I played a few casual games with my elf-ball (ph34r).  The tourney was a little late in starting, but Ray did well to accommodate everyone, especially since he wasn’t expecting such a large turnout.

Its Go Time:
Round 1, Paul playing White Weenie

In the short amount of time I scouted beforehand I saw TnT, Trix, Keeper, Mask, Ur-phid, Academy and all sorts of vintage heavyweights.  When Paul went ‘plains, go’ I began to feel more comfortable.  I took some early beats, but eventually kegged away his forces, and dropped a phid.  Another phid eventually joined the party, and drawing 3 cards a turn just isn’t fair.  I finally found a win condition (re: quirion dryad), and had one of those impulse, gush, merchant scroll, ancestral, swing turns.  Game 2, I bring in the oath conversion.  My opening hand had 2 oaths and a powder keg; morphling sealed the deal.  1-0, 2-0

Round 2, John playing Green Fat
‘Forest, Elf go’?  This is type 1, right?  I drain into a morphling, and the sheet goes 15, 10, 5, 0.  Game 2 sees the oath conversion again, and basically the same story as game 1, but this time my opponent is kind enough to rancor my morphling.  2-0, 4-0

TMDers reading this at home may think that I was playing at a portal convention or something, instead of a serious T1 tournament.  The actuality is that I just drew really easy matches in the early rounds.  About 2/3 to ¾ of the people attending were in fact serious vintage players, and my later matches will show this.  However, as Ray warned, there were a few people who just tweaked T2 and extended decks.

Round 3, Dave playing Sligh

Dave was one of those really quite types.  No facial expressions, no playful banter, just roll, cut and draw.  I kept a hand with 3 fetchlands (the rest was good), and then he goes mountain, chain lightning.  Ambivalence hits me as, I know that sligh is generally a good matchup, however, I’ve just kept a dangerous hand, and I was worried that he might get that ‘I win’ hand and then steal game 2 or 3.  Luckily for me, he doesn’t apply any creature pressure, which allows me to take burn and set up my attack.  I’m able to defend a phid long enough to get a dryad and morphling out.

One of the things I failed to find out game 1 is that I my opponent is running ball lightning.  Perhaps across the field ball lightning is sub-optimal.  Against my deck its pretty good.  I still wasn’t sure if he was playing ankh sligh, so I brought in the oath conversion.  Game 2 he burns me with regularity, and eventually slips through a ball lightning for the kill.  Game 3 I go back to dryads and get a good start.  1st turn Dryad with a daze, leak, and FoW to protect it (which all got used by the 3rd turn).  So now I have him on the clock with dryad, but he continues to burn me.

This is where I make 2 big play errors that cost me the match.  First, while fetching I continue to get tropical islands, completely forgetting about Price of Progress.  To be honest, people usually side them out against me; I just didn’t think of it.  He hits me for 6 with PoP at the end of his turn, then untaps and chain lightnings me down to 6.  I untap, swing with dryad and bring him to 2.  He knows that I have a FoW (from a fact or fiction), and he’s holding 3 cards with 2 mountains.  He floats rr and fireblasts.  My thought process was: if he has two 1cc burn spells I’m dead regardless, if he has barbarian ring I can’t let this resolve either.  I counter the blast and he plays…another Price of Progress.  I hang my head in shame.  I’ve now lost 3 matches in a row to sligh, all after claiming (on this site) how good the match up is for E.Alice.  I’m still something like 12-3, but I may have to re-think how I play and sideboard.  Any help is welcome.
2-1, 5-2

I’m now 2-1 and thankfully this is the point where Ray decides to have a bit of an intermission with some magic trivia, some pizza, and other shenanigans.  I have some lunch (a twix bar), and play some more elf-ball.

Round 4, Chuck (aka BigChuck) playing Mask with the Gro ‘engine’

This is the first time I’ve met chuck, and I was looking forward to this match up (Nick had told me what he was playing).  Like psycho-tog, I’m offended by any dryad build that isn’t mine (taking a CT player out of the running was an added bonus).

First Game I win an early counter war over a dryad.  I FoW twice, pitching two phids; I then draw a third phid and begin to draw.  I drop kegs and wait while my card advantage builds up.  He plays some stuff, then I keg away his mask, scroll-rack, dreadnought, then drop my own dryad and smash face for the win.  Game 2 I bring in the oath conversion (which he didn’t expect for some reason) and get first, woodripper, then morphling, then win.  Go Alice, go.  3-1, 7-2

Round 5, Pat playing Academy

An important side story to the previous round is that Pat was actually playing next to Chuck and I, and we overheard that he was running a transitional sideboard (mask & negators).  Game 1 I did what Ux usually does to combo: counter key spells, prevent them from gaining card advantage, find the kill and beat.  The second game, due to my unintentional insider information, I decided to keep powder kegs in, but didn’t go oath, just in case he anticipated my tech.  Of course, his first turn he drops a negator.  Fortunately I could drop a keg of my own 1st turn, as my life went 15, 10, 5 and then stayed there for the rest of the game.  Eventually I drop a phid, misdirect an ancestral and swing with big green chicks. 4-1, 9-2

Since we gone done pretty fast I got to chat with Paul for a bit.  He’s a helluva nice guy, from long island, and we talked about different metagames and upcoming tournaments.  He plays occasionally at NG and commented on their competitive level of play, but unfriendly gaming atmosphere.  He had been considering putting together a dryad deck before the tourney, I think I cemented his decision.

Round 6, Howie playing Fires

Since we were both 4-1 Howie asked me if I wanted to draw.  I said I’d consider it if he told me what he was playing (I’m kind of a bastard sometimes).  When he said Fires, I told him I’d probably wreck him, but asked the guy keeping stats if we would automatically make it.  He said our chances were good, but it wasn’t a sure thing.  I told Howie to roll.

Game 1 I FoW an early blastoderm, keg away a few elves and rootwallas and drop a dryad.  He insists and then tries to play saproling burst.  Um, how about no, Howie.  I mana drained into keg and morphling and beat.  While sideboarding he began to whine about how I was picking on a little kid (he was about 17) and we should still draw.  The second game I drop an early oath on his elf and ride weaver out until I can keg away his army of 4cc critters.  I eventually dig up a morphling and he takes it home.  5-1, 11-2

Howie then began whining even more about how I should feel bad about beating him and seemed like he wasn’t going to sign the report unless I chose to draw.  Later when I was playing in the top 8 he hovered around trying to taunt me.  What a classy guy.

I knew I was in, but I really had no idea how I placed.  After a mountain dew (thanks Nick) and watching some casual WW vs TnT action they announced T8:

Seed #1 Alex Crestfield (with TNT sportin blue) (Lord of the Goats)
Seed #2 Stephen Houdlette (with Gro) (Grand Inquisitor )
Seed #3 Ben Taraskevich (with Growatog) (No MANADRAIN Account)
Seed #4 Tom Goodwin (With Void) (No MANADRAIN Account)
Seed #5 Keith Johnson (With TNT) (CT Thespian)
Seed #6 David Bunnell (With Sligh) (No MANADRAIN Account)
Seed #7 Nick Tourloukis (With Growatog) (Bill The Duck)
Seed #8 Jared Demick (With 4 color Trix) (Wicketsnatcher)

Top 8, Nick playing Gro-a-Tog
Yeah, it sucked that Nick and I had to play, especially since we were the only Hadley crew in the top 8.  First game I had one of those T1 broken starts.  It was something like island, lotus, ancestral, mana drain, draw 3, mox, keg, time walk.  Unfortunately, I didn’t know that you had to take a second main phase, so I took some mana burn instead of playing a morphling on my time walk turn.  It was still enough to swing the momentum in my favor.  I dropped a dryad, drained into a morphling and finished him off.  I think oath conversion is the way to go against gro-a-tog, but I’m still not sure.  This is a tough match games 2 & 3 due to duress and naturalize.

We have an early counter war over a gush, which I lose.  I drop an oath on his tog, but can only get him down to 12 with morphling before he goes ape-shit.  Game 3 was also pretty intense.  My weaver staved him off as I beat down with morphling, however, this did allow him to oath into a tog.  After I beat him down to 3, he mystical tutors during his upkeep.  I FoW it, figuring if he has counter back up, he can still cast the berserk anyway, but this way he’ll have a smaller hand.  He can’t counter and topdecks misdirection.  It sucked taking out Nick, but I’m sure he’ll get revenge in Hadley.  6-1, 13-3

Top 4, Ben playing Gro-a-Tog
Great, another Gro-a-Tog deck.  Although I was initially skeptical, I’ve come to respect this deck.  I don’t think its as good against a diverse field, but it’s not a great match up for Alice.  I go first, but he drops a 2nd turn dryad that had one of those disgusting blue/blue stacks: dryad, mana drain, gush, FoW, FoW, Gush, Foil, dryad resolves.  He then beat me with a 1/1 for 6 turns while I drew nothing but lands.  Finally I found an impulse, but the top 4 had nothing helpful except time walk.  From there I drew 3 more lands and a misdirection while he grew his dryad and swung.  Game 2 I bring in the oath coversion and am able to drop an early oath.  He doesn’t play creatures and duresses me a few times.  I have a keg out, but keep it at 2, figuring he won’t be able to resolve both tog and time walk in the same turn.  I was right about not resolving tog/walk, but he forces will through while fastbond was out.  He does despicable combo things and I die a miserable death.  My deck completely crapped in the game 1, but that was the first time it happened all day; I was due.  Ben played very well, and it was definitely him, and not my deck that beat me.

As you can see from above, Alex smashed his face in the finals.

Summary:
A great time was had by all.  Dryads are taking over time 1 (insert flame here).  Hadley had a decent showing, but continues its slump since the Concord tourney.  I got to meet all kinds of cool people (including a number of TMDers).  I won a foil Nantuko Shade (pumps fist).

Props:
Ray, ran a classy tournament and kept a mass of people happy and organized
Alex, plays a nasty TnT and is just a fun player to watch
Pat, Chuck and anyone else I met/played there that made it an enjoyable experience
Me, for making T4 after 300 miles driving and 2 hours sleep
Slops:
Me, for making play errors that cost me games and getting Nick home late
Howie, for being a whiny punk
Convenient store owners, for being clueless in general

mana base (21):
4 tropical islands
1 black lotus
1 mox emerald
1 mox sapphire
2 wooded foothills
2 flooded strand
1 Library of Alexandria (proxy)
1 strip mine
1 forest
6 islands

creatures (9)
1 morphling
4 ophidian  
4 quirion dryad

utility (15):
1 sylvan library
1 merchant scroll
1 fact or fiction
1 time walk
1 ancestral recall
4 gush
3 impulse
3 brainstorm

removal (3)
3 powder keg

counters (13):
4 mana drain
4 force of will
3 misdirection
1 daze
1 mana leak

sideboard:
4 oath of druids
2 gaea's blessing
1 woodripper
1 spike weaver
1 spike feeder
2 naturalize
1 powder keg
3 back to basics

[wicketsnatcher]

NOTE #1:  I should be working right now.

NOTE #2:  I hate my job.

NOTE #3:  I wasn't planning on writting a report, but the good Mr. Robilard may break my knees if I don't write one.


Onto the report.  I've had a Lion's Eye Diamond deck for casual play for a while now, and so I decided to make into a T1 tourney deck (similar to "Toronto Stompy") which would also let me abuse the proxy rule as I made basic land proxies on the backs of basic land.  Unfortunately, this just didn't sit right with me so I defaulted to playing L[ich]D[onate].  It's pretty much a 4 color Trix deck.

ROUND 1 vs Mike Walsh with U/r Trix

Note #4:  It's weird going to tourneys like this because I see many different crowds that I hang out with.  Mike's from the store in Torrington, and he started playing Trix cause I smoked him with it once there in the T1 finals.

Game 1:  I wasn't looking forward to this match.  He runs counter, along with possible red blasts main board.  We both keep, and I drop Lotus, Tundra, Timetwister.  I love early game twisters because it has the potential to give him a really shitty hand.  Unfortunately, his hand wasn't terrible.  I try to FoW one of his spells on a following turn which he counters.  This makes me happy because it drew out his counter and I lost cards in my hand.  Next turn I balance with 1 land in play and 1 card in hand, forcing us into topdeck mode.  I knew my deck has a greater potential to pull back.  As expected, it did, and I win.

Game 2:  I get out an early (turn 1 or 2) Aura of Silence which he stares at for THE REST OF THE GAME.  He prays for the one capsize in his deck.  I get out a couple Defense Grid and some massive card draw.  Then I force out a key spell, get out a Bargain, and win in one turn (after dangerously replenishing my 1 card hand with a Twister, giving him a greater chance to draw up his Capsize - oh well).


ROUND 2 vs ? ? ? ? playing Academy

Game 1:  We both decline to cut each other's decks, and then both paris.  We figured we should cut this time.  Anyhow, we do, and a couple turns pass (I get a Rector out), and he goes off.  I didn't draw my Orim's Chant in one of many draw 7s, which would have let me win the following turn.  Oh well.

Game 2:  I paris again.  Damn.  I say land - go.  He says Negator(!!!).  I say Force of Will.  I say land - go.  He says Illusionary Mask, creature for 1, go.  I say... damn, go.  He says attack for 12, creature for one.  I say good luck next round and pick up my cards.  Damn that trasitional sideboard hit me out of nowhere.  Luckily my boarding (Aura of Silence x2) would have been good either way.  Only if I had a turn 1 kill could I have dealt with that beef.


ROUND 3 vs ? ? ? ? with mono-g stompy...ish

Game 1:  Opening hand: Lotus, Land, Mox, Dark Ritual, Illusions, Mox, Land.  Hot damn if that isn't a first turn kill sans Donate.  I keep, and lay all my mana goodness.  He plays a dude and an Eldamri's Vineyard.  I draw a land.  Then a Sol Ring.  Then a Dark Rit.  Then a Land.  Then my life total is zero.  Day-um son.

Game 2:  I get out a Rector after a couple turns of face smashing.  He drops 2 Rancors on his Rootwalla, pumps it, Giant Growths it, and swings for 10.  I'm at 9.  I block and go down to 1, snagging an Illusions with the Rector.  I pay the upkeep, Donate it and win.

Game 3:  I don't remember.  I won.  Nothing fantastical happened.


ROUND 4 vs some chica with U/W Winter Orb

Game 1:  She goes first, drops some land and Enlightened Tutors.  I play some cards, she goes again and casts Enlightened Tutor.  Well I'll be damned if that doesn't make two.  I tell her they're restricted and she didn't know.  Honest mistake - she removes the excess copies from her deck and we just play on.  I'm able to FoW the Winter Orb she tutored for originally, and then I tutor for a Hoodwink to bounce her Nevineryals Disk that snuck out when I wasn't looking (i.e. had no counters).  Then I Despotic Scepter away the Rector and win.

Game 2:  She parises.  I have an amazing hand.  I cast Ancestral Recall about fifty billion times, get out three thousand mana, and she scoops seeing I had everything I needed and a bag of chips on the side.


ROUND 5 vs Dave (also from the Torrington crowd) playing Sligh

Game X: He wants to draw, because he's gonna make it into the T8.  I know he runs Ball Lightnings, and they don't play nicely with Rectors.  Sligh is NOT an easy matchup, and so I decide what the hell, and draw.  Sure I need to win next round to make T8, but a 3-1-1 is better than a 3-2-0.  And at the very least I'm giving a better chance to one of my homies.


ROUND 6 vs ? ? ? ? playing Sneak Attack

Game 1:  1st turn Sneak Attack.  I Force of Will.  He Force of Wills.  Next turn he plays a Serra Avatar and swings and I go to scoop.  Then I say "Wait!  You're at 19!" and put my cards back down.  Then I say "Wait!  So am I!" and pick them up again.

Game 2:  This game is just as quick, but in my favor.  I quickly combo him out.  He Force Spikes me when I am about to win... but I have an untapped land.  He knew that, but at least he made me take a damage with my City of Brass.

Game 3:  He parises down to 5.  This is doubleplusungood for him.  He resolves 2 Sneak Attacks and I get out a Rector as a blocker.  Eventually I combo and win.


TOP 8 vs Alex (lord of the goats) with TnT

Game 1:  Woo!  After mad trash talk about wanting to face TnT I get my wish.  We had some good natured mocking at each others expense earlier on and it was a good time.  I get out a Rector to play with his Juggernaut.  Then I win.

Game 2:  My hand is less than super.  I am at 8 when I get out a Rector to meet his Mox Monkey, Su-Chi, and Trisk.  I can do the math (5 unblocked damage plus 3 Trisk) so I scoop up my cards.  I had 4 mana out, an Orim's Chant and Impulse in hand.  I could have Impulsed then during his upkeep kicked the Chant to give myself another turn.  That may not have won me, but it would have bought another turn.  Oh well.

Game 3:  I have early combo pieces in hand with a Dark Rit - making the potential for an early win very doable.  Words can't describe the big ass grin that split across his face when he resolved Blood Moon.  Then I draw a Hydroblast next turn - great.  And then he drops Blood Moon #2.  Woo.  At least I won't take damage from City of Brass.  Fortunately, the moons are all he has, so we play land-go.  I am holding Mox Jet, Dark Rit, Orim's Chant, Aura of Silence, Illusions, Donate, Hydroblast and some other card.  Instead of discarding, I stupidly play the Jet that I've been holding in case of emergency instead of discarding a useless card.  His next turn he fetches a Monkey and axes the Mox.  Next turn I draw up Vamp Tutor, which would have won me the game (going for Lotus to combo out).  Then I draw up the Sapphire, play the Illusions, and pray to draw the Lotus next.  No such luck.  The errors I made this game were many.  I also played a useless land instead of holding it in hopes of drawing my Mox Diamond.  I realize that I am a bad magic player, pick up my cards, and root on Alex in the coming rounds!  Good thing the bastard won it - otherwise my loss would have been in vain.


Good times, good times....

-J:tD


(decklists are for ninnys, much like card advantage.  i suppose I'll include one to accompany this report...)

L[ich]D[onate] ... in all of it's glory

3 Donate
3 Illusions of Granduer
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Time Twister
2 Show and Tell
1 Hoodwink
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Impulse
3 Force of Will

3 Dark Ritual
1 Yawgmoth's Bargain
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Nefarious Lich
1 Yawgmoth's Will (pretty and new and Korean)

3 Academy Rector
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Orim's Chant
1 Balance

1 Regrowth
1 Elvish Spirit Guide

1 Scroll Rack
2 Despotic Scepter
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Diamond
1 Black Lotus
1 Lotus Petal
1 Sol Ring

4 Underground Sea
3 Tundra
3 Scrubland
3 City of Brass
2 Gemstone Mine
1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale

SIDEBOARD
2 Compost
3 Defense Grid
1 City of Solitude
2 Aura of Silence
1 Force of Will
2 Chill
1 Hydroblast
1 Propaganda
2 uh... I don't remember

[Necropotince]

Hey Guys, I went to Connecticut tournament and placed 11th. This was decent for me because I hardly played since the last Conn T1 tournament and was a bit rusty. I had a list of decks that I was deciding on what to play. In the end it looked like Neo Academy, Black Mask, and Emerald Alice / Gro variant. I decided to go with a combination of both Neo and Mask. Since both decks were fast I thought I could play fast games and try to integrate them well. We drove to Connecticut and stayed at the hotel. On the day of the tournament we registered and waited. One of my friends came to down register in his PJ’s. He thought it was funny to wear his bathrobe and slippers to register…kinda acting like he lived at the hotel, we got a kick out of it.

Round 1 (?), Playing Goblin Burn
Game 1 – I don’t remember this one much because I was still half asleep. He was a nice guy, but he never saw my deck before and how it played so he was a little curious and inpatient at sometimes. But I would be too if I was playing an academy player. I Meditated 3 times and was doing fine until I wasn’t able to excel much more. Gave him 4 turns – game for him.
Game 2 – I got the combo out quick around 3-4th turn and did the usual win.
Game 3 – Same as first but just before I was about to kill him he just asked me if I could win and when I told him yet he conceded. I kinda felt bad – maybe I should talk to my opponents while I’m playing the deck so they wont get bored/pissed.

1-0-0   2-1

Round 2 wicketsnatcher (sorry don’t remember real name), Playing Trix
Game 1 – Basically reading his report is accurate.
Game 2 – Finally got to try out the transition sideboard. Worked well with first turn Negator…but countered. Second turn Mask, Phyrexian Dreadnaught pulls through. He was nice and commented me on the surprise of the sideboard.

2-0-0   4-1

Round 3 Nick Axel (I think), Playing Gro-a-tog
He was a good sport and schooling me of the power of gro when I doubted it and decided not to play it initially.
Game 1 – He counters my crucial spells and I just sit and watch a chick with a vine whip grow. He attacks when shes a 10/10, I say “ok” and he then cunning wishes in response for something shocking to me at the time…BERSERK! Stunned…I scooped.
Game 2 – Did the transitional sideboard trick….but nonetheless I saw nothing and he quickly got out 3 dryhads for the win. Damn.  Afterwards we talked and I told him I really wanted to play the gro deck but decided with academy. He showed me his deck and I liked it a lot, he even gave me his personal deck listing for the deck which I thought was cool.

2-1-0   4-3


Round 4 – Taylor, Playing RG Beats/burn/Squirrel combo deck?
Game – 1 Get the combo out decently quickly and win. Didn’t see much on his side so I was still curious to what he was playing.
Game – 2 Mana Crypt SUCKS! I must have lost 9 life from this. Elephant tokens + burn = death for me.
Game – 3 I decide to sideboard the mask combo in a last ditch effort to see if I can out run him. Game goes quickly and 12/12 comes through for the win.

3-1-0   6-4

Round 5 – Stephen, Playing Emerald Alice
Steve was a really nice guy, one of the better opponents I faced during the day.
Game – 1 He does what his deck does best, counter my cool things and then beat me with a chick.
Game – 2 I was going to just side in 4 negators against him because I knew he knew what I was going to side in. But then I just dismissed the idea and went for the whole thing. Still a good couple of forces and misdirected ancestral later….he wins. There is nothing more humbling to have a ancestral misdirected. I cringe whenever it happens. Anyway, afterward we talked a bit about the deck and I explained to him that the gro/alice deck was what I was initially going to play. So he definitely cemented my decision

3-2-0   6-6

Round 6 – No opponent
My opponent dropped and entered a draft so I got a default win. Nice

4-2-0   8-6

Made 11th place which was pretty good for me. Great tournament, great opponents, great 50cent soda  (mountain zing baby!!!). As for the ride home on Monday, I think the most scariest part was ending up on the wrong side of the road with the big, scary, SUV’s honking. Looking forward to doing it again. The deck I played is identical to every Neo-Academy deck out there so if you want the list its not hard to find.

The Sideboard went like this
4-Phyrexian Negator
4-Phyrexian Dreadnaught
4-Illusionary Mask
1-Jesters Cap
1-Cursed Totem
1-City Of Solitude

See you guys for the next one.

Props:
Courtyard’s BREAKFAST Buffet
The bar at the Courtyard for not carding a 19 y/o  
Ray for a fun tournament
Stephen, Nick, and a bunch of other cool opponents who I only know by faces
For me freaking out and trying to combine two fast decks

Slops:
For me thinking I could try to combine two fast decks instead of playing gro/alice
The bar at the Courtyard for running out of Medorian liqueur….after I drank it all.
Ken for being retarded when he was drunk – Fire exits are for when fires happen ken.
The CRAZY 3-legged dog that was (trying) chasing us through out the parking lot.  

[IAmFishMan]

Hi,

I'm looking for all you guys to give me advice on how I can continue to improve my tournaments...please all feedback, positive and negative is helpful.
Thanks
Ray

[BigChuck]

Printed Proxies. This really isn't all that difficult to do, and would help new players, and also make cards more recognizable when they are in play.

[Grand Inquisitor]

@chuck,

Quote Printed Proxies. This really isn't all that difficult to do

did my plains-esque mox sapphire really mess you up, or was it my powder kegs...OF DEATH

hadley ownz ct

@pat,

Quote The bar at the Courtyard for running out of Medorian liqueur….after I drank it all.
Ken for being retarded when he was drunk – Fire exits are for when fires happen ken

that is frickin' hysterical.  if you ever come up for a hadley tourney we'll hit the bars here        

[Lord of the Goats]

definatly some sort of proxy standerdization is a good idea.

i think that's it's important to have the proxies be easily identifiable at a distance, i think mandatory black & white proxies is a good way to do this. they're recognisable  as the intended card, and it's easy to see that they're a proxy (and keep track if your opponent has more that 5).  

also, ending at 10:30 on a suday isn't such a good thing when you have a 2 and a half hour drive home and school in the morning. starting earlier would definatly be better for me and james... although we're not exactly the majority

[ctthespian]

Ok here it goes.  Sunday was an early morning, and with my staying up really late for some reason Saturday night, I was just a bit tired.  Any way I rush from my church job singing in Avon, CT to Waterbury and make it in record time, getting there a half hour early.   I check out some of the cards the vendor Arnold has quickly looking for alphas to finish my set. (15 away)!!! unfortunately he didn't have any.  Then settle in to play.

Round1
Andrew Marshal (LOA)  TNT  (Mirror match)

I wasn’t looking forward to playing Andrew first round, although I did his Keeper deck in a few months back when he stopped into a local gaming store where I played.  The match begins with him winning the die roll (I’d not win a die roll all day.)  Then he lays a Taiga or Workshop, I forget which first, but I know right away I’m playing a mirror matchup.

Game 1
Life Totals:
ME: 17,16,13,5,4
LOA: 16,13,0

He gets some quick beats without survival, while I have the survival.  His Trisk takes out a couple of my Welders and I thought I was done for.  The final turn played out like this.  I had anger, he didn’t.  He had an untapped Welder on board and I survival and weld in a Collosus and a Trisk between his end of turn and my turn.  Then after pinging the 1/1 I swing and the Trisk gets the kill.  I win.

Game 2
Me: 19,15,6,5,0
LOA: 19,18

LOA gets an explosive start with survival and pretty much controlled the board.

Game 3
Me: 19
LOA: 19,18,9,0

Another great opening for me with Survival and some fattys.  I see that survival rules the mirror match.
I wish LOA luck and notice that there is another TNT deck beside us (Lord of the Goats).

Round 2 1-0 (2-1)

Dan:  Playing combo elf (Intruder Alarm, Voice of the Woods)

Game 1
Me: 18
Dan: 16,12,1,0

I see elves and have no idea of the combo.  He drops a foreign intruder alarm and that helps my untap all my critters with welder tricks, a colossus included.  Victory is mine.

Game 2
Me:19,0
Dan: 15
I don’t see the army of infinite 7/7’s being prepared until it’s too late, however, now I’m wise.  ( I berate my self for not seeing the combo sooner.

Game 3
Me: 19
Dan: 16, Concede

I survival into a welded Trisk just in time to off his 3 1/1’s that included a Priest of Titania.  He concedes seeing that I have board advantage.

Round 3  2-0 (4-2)
Ray Clavette:  GRO

Ray’s a local tourney buddy up at Card Empire in Torrington.  I didn’t know what to expect, especially with the 5 Proxies.  He’s a very good player though so I’m prepared for a fight.
Unfortunately I don’t remember many specifics of this match up.

Game 1
Me: 19,17,18,14 WIN
Ray: 19,15,14,10,4,3,2,1,0

Game 2
ME: 19,20,16,15,7,12,8,0
Ray: 19,18,17, Win

Game 3
Me: 19,23,21,8
Ray: 19,18,14,0

Round 4 3-0 (6-3)
David:  Sligh, with Ball lightnings

David is another local Torrington player.

His Ball lightnings won him the games.  I couldn’t get out answers to them quick enough, and it was silly to block with my utility creatures.  That teamed up with bad draws on my part gave him the win.

Game 1
Me: 19,18,17,14,6,5,4,0
Dave: 19

Game 2
Me: 19,17,11,5,0
Dave: 17,14,13,11,7

Round 5 3-1 (6-5)
Nick:  Playing Tog?

Nick offered the draw, however considering my win percentage I felt uncomfortable taking the offer.  I regrettably requested that we play.

Game 1
Nick wins the roll, but has to paris twice down to 5.  I think I took out an early land with a waste and he is mana hosed for the first game(bummer).
Me: 20
Nick: 18,17,13,0

Game 2
Another bad draw for Nick while I had an incredible hand.  I didn’t even keep a good track of life as the game was over so quick.

Round 6  4-1 (8-5)
Mike: Sligh

Mike is a fellow player at my local store and while we were talking about Drawing into the finals, again I didn’t think my win percentage would get me in with the draw.  After some agonizing debates and looking at the standing (me being at 7th in the 5th round standings) I again regrettably requested that we play.

Game 1
Me: 20
Mike: 19,17,9,0

I think I remember owning the board with Trisk and some fattys.

Game 2
Me: 18,16,15,14,13
Mike: 18,13

We both paris this game down to 6.  At one point I think this is the game where Mike had 3 Goblin Cadets and a gorilla shaman facing off against my army.  The cadets inability to attack did him in as one of the opposing blockers was a Shield Sphere.

TOP8
I make 5th place and sit to face off against Tom, playing Void.  Now Void is a simple match up for TNT so I’m not that nervous.

Game 1
Me: 20
Tom: 16,8,4,3,0

A perfect match up, further allaying my nervousness.

Game 2
Me: 18,16,14,12,10,1
Tom: 16

I start the game with an early Tetravus which was very quickly dispatched by an edict.  I have horrible draws for the rest of the game.  Hippies relentlessly beat me down, while a Plague for goblins prevents me from welding back in the Tetravus to control the skies.  No survival seen that game.

Game 3
Me: 18,16,14,10,8,6,4,2,0
Tom: 17
I’m nervous now!!
Again no survival and Hippies swing again.  Squee helps stave off their discard effects, and I jar 3 times desperately trying to find a Trisk to use as AA fire at the hippie.  No Trisks or survivals see the entire 21 cards drawn.  I fall to the dirty Hippes.

The deck.
4   Juggernaut
3   Su-Chi
4   Goblin Welder
1   Squee, Goblin Nabob
1   Genesis
1   Anger
2   Triskellion
1   Quirion Ranger
1   Druid Lyrist
1   Bird of Paradise
1   Uktabi Orangutan
1   Tetravus
1   Karn, Silver Golem
1   Phyrexian Colossus
1   Masticore
1   Shield Sphere
2   Sylvan Library
1   Wheel of Fortune
1   Memory Jar
4   Survival of the Fittest

7   SoLoMoxen
2   Wasteland
1   Strip Mine
4   Wooded Foothills
4   Taiga
4   Mishra's Workshop
4   Forest
1   Mountain

   Sideboard Cards
2   Blood Moon
3   Compost
3   Hull Breach
1   Bottle Gnomes
1   Druid Lyrist
2   Defense Grid
2   Tormod's Crypt
1   Dwarven Miner

All in all, despite losing to a deck that was a favorable matchup, not a bad day.  
Props to Ray for a great tourny.  
Hopefully he won't make them any earlier so I can still attend with my singing gigs on Sunday.  
Props to the guy who traded me my 2nd foil Replenish.  
Props to Arnold, the man with the cards, eventhough he lacks Alphas and has some interesting prices.

-Keith

[BillTheDuck]

Making them on saturdays would make it a hell of a lot easier for me to come. It ended at 10:30 and I had to drive back and go to school early the next morning.

I couldn't care less about proxies, color, black and white, or written on a Slipstream Eel.

[Zherbus]

IamFishman: Don't do that again. I don't care who wrote it, but TMD accounts should be an honor to have. First off, there is an unregistered forum for this kid to post stuff on, so his hands aren't completely tied. Secondly, read the posts before posting. That guy flamed people half of his report, some of which are members of TMD who will obviously respond.

[IAmFishMan]

Most deffinitly that was not the play...and I apologize to all involved.  The only reason I posted is because I remember when someone posted for me right before I got my account.
Ray