MHC Type 1 Tourney

[Clown of Tresserhorn]

Well, what can I say? Another disappointing finish for Mask. It was definitely a fun time, but tedious as hell. I didn’t eat breakfast, and I had to take the bus for 2 HOURS to come down to MHC. Well anywho, here’s my decklist:

3 Swamp
3 Snow-covered Swamp
3 Mishra’s Factory
3 Polluted Delta
1 City of Brass
1 Undiscovered Paradise
3 Underground Sea
1 Underground River
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
4 Dark Ritual

4 Illusionary Mask
4 Phyrexian Dreadnought
3 Phyrexian Negator
2 Hypnotic Specter

3 Tainted Pact
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Consultation
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Impulse

4 Duress
2 Unmask
1 Hymn to Tourach
1 Mind Twist
1 Recoil

1 Necropotence
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk

SB

2 Contaigon
3 Planar Void
1 Lord of Tresserhorn
1 Phyrexian Negator
1 Hypnotic Specter
1 Recoil
2 Cursed Totems
2 Diabolic Edicts
1 Hurkyl’s Recall
1 Zuran Orb

Off to the tournament:

First Round: Eric Ohmms playing a random green deck
Game 1: This was pretty easy, as he was a little kid, and his deck was like 100+ cards. He casts a Diligent Farmhand, I go, land, sol ring, mask, go. Next turn he is staring down a 12/12 trampler, and soon dies.
Game 2: Same scenario, only I get a first turn dreadnought.

Matches: 1-0 Games: 2-0

Second Round: Andy playing Mask
This kid is really cool, and we didn’t want to hurt each other’s chances, so we ID.  We play a couple games and I kill him, as I have a better hand. He is playing almost an identical deck as me, but only with a slightly different disruption/land ratio.

Matches: 1-0-1 Games: 2-0

Third Round: Jeff (r3as0n on TMD) playing Keeper
Game 1: Wow, Keeper is definitely a hard deck to play when a good player pilots it. I get him down to 5 with 1 dreadnought, but recurring shattering pulses are usually bad news…soon, superman kills me
Game 2: Same scenario, I couldn’t get an active dreadnought, and he tramples me…

Matches: 1-1-1 Games: 2-2 (HA Jeff, you thought I would write 3-2, but I didn’t)

Fourth Round: Aaron Playing a rogue R/G Beats Deck
Game 1: I’m not too worried, as I see him taunting me with a basking rootwalla. Two turns later he’s crying from Dreadnought beats.
Game 2: It’s really hard to beat a hand of underground sea, time walk, mask, dreadnought, lotus, ritual, sapphire…

Matches: 2-1-1 Games: 4-2

Fifth Round: Steve Playing WW
Game 1: not much to say, as he gets mad critters w/ pro black on the table, and I am dreadnought-less
Game 2: this game takes FOREVER. Come on, how hard is it to play WW?!?! j/k anyways, we’re pretty close at life (me at 4, him at 2) he kills a dreadnought, brings out a seal of cleansing, and my lord of tresserhorn can’t block a white knight and a order of Leibuter.

Matches: 2-2-1 Games: 4-4

Sixth Round: Mike Playing Suicide Black
Game 1: Remember how I said mask had problems with sui? Well, not this time. I go, land, Ritual, mask, vamp tutor for dreadnought, go. Three turns later, he scoops.
Game 2: Wow, nevermind what I said before…he plays a first turn Negator and runs with it all the way. I deal NO damage.
Game 3: I got soooooooooo lucky. He kept a landless hand (he later told me it was 2 ritual, 2 negator, 1 sinkhole + more). In anycase, I get the god draw, and play a first turn dreadnought. I ride it victory 3 turns later.

Matches: 3-2-1 Games: 6-5

Random thoughts: Wow, today was bad. I mean, I drew god hands for crappy decks, and shitty hands for good decks. It sickens me, I’ve playtested so much with Mask, and I loose consistently. I think I wanna give up on it and play TnT. Thoughts? Well, in the mean time, I’ll have 4 BB masks for trade (2 alpha, 2 beta) and will be needing 4 Workshops (obviously it isn’t enough). Anywho, enough with the ranting of trading.

Props:
Drew Fischer: You da man! Thanks for finding cards for me and giving me a ride to my dorm
Matt: Thanks for being my bitch!!!j/k man, nothin’ but love.
Jeff (r3as0n): good luck with the tourney man, sorry I couldn’t stay. Oh, YOU BETTER TELL PEOPLE THAT I WORE A CLOWN HAT THAT I GOT AT CHICK FILLET FOR MOST OF THE TOURNEY!!!!
Routedashf: It was nice meeting you. Hopefully you’ll do better with gro-atog next time
Andy: Good luck with Mask
Carol (maybe it’s Karen?), I think she’s Jackalope on TMD, anywho, it was cool kickin’ it with you.
Pretty much all of my opponents, thanks for keeping it real
And last but not least, MHC for being cool

Slops:
RTD-DENVER: What the F*ck is wrong with you!?!?! When you say you’ll be there at 10:15, don’t be HALF AN HOUR LATE!
The guy playing TnT: WTF man? Enough with the sarcasm and shit. I wanted to know if you would trade the workshops. And don’t act all cool and better than everyone else cause you have an unpowered TnT deck and you're part of a crew who is fully powered. Serious, get over yourself. You think that power will make you a better player? Bullshit.

Anywho, thanks for reading the report. Take care.

-Bob

[BillTheDuck]

The thing I have noticed about mask is that its performance is completely random. My friend can go undefeated in high power tournaments and can go 1-3 in 4 tournaments straight (right phelon?). It has nothing to do with the players skill, its 100% random.

[Clown of Tresserhorn]

I would 100% agree. It's all luck. No matter how good a player you are, you can never guarantee that you can get the dreadnought or mask out in time. Sometimes you get that god draw, and sometimes, your deck craps out on you

[Zhalfirin]

In my experience, Mask can definitely crap out on you.  Fortunately, matches are determined on a 2 out of 3 basis.  So, if your search is robust and you know when to mulligan hands that aren't going anywhere, you can put yourself in a position to consistently win 2 games in a match.

In my last three tournaments at C&J's in Newark, Ca, I have finished 1st, 1st, and 2nd.  Some of my wins have come against sub-par decks (this is bound to happen in T1), but many have come against fully-powered decks piloted by solid, TMD players (Fishhead, Saucemaster, Raziel).  Here is my most detailed tourney report:

Masknaught @ C&J's

My build for the deck is at the bottom of the thread.  I strongly recommend decreasing the mana count, running more free disruption (Unmask) and running the full complement of 4 Tainted Pacts to help find a part of the combo, or a really broken card (Yawgmoth's Will/Necropotence).  Also, Blood Moon in the sideboard can really help the matchup against non-basic land oriented decks (Keeper, GrowAtog, turboland, etc.).  

A note on mulliganing:  Don't keep a hand of 7 if it isn't going anywhere.  Make sure that you have:

1) A threat with disruption protection
-or-
2) Multiple threats

Also, this deck can be really broken with only 6, or even 5 cards, so don't be afraid to mulligan hands.  In some matchups (usually aggro), it can a be viable strategy to mulligan into the combo, or half of the combo and a search card.