Tourney Report- Hadley 4/12

Hey all. Yestarday me and a few friends made the 1 hour 45 minute trek from rhode island to Hadley mass for the timewalk tourney.

I decided to play GAT; I have been doing exceptional at my local store with and have had a lot of testing. I extensivly tested the GAT/mirror, Keeper, and Stax/Ducktape matchups beforehand, expecting to see those decks in abundance, and arranging my sideboard accordingly.

So me and the rhody crew go up there, fairly confident in our ability to take home a chunk of the prizes. We had:

Scott Limoges(No TMD Account) Playing R/G TNT.
Me, Aaron Kerzner (Kerzkid11) playing *fairly* standard GAT.
Michael Dalton (No TMD Account) playing GAT.
and Dana Renfrew ( Master Tap) set to play Cherry Parfait (Litlle white dragon as he calls it), but couldnt get the shit, so he sat out.

So here's my beast of a DL for reference:

Kerz Gro-A-Tog V2.0

3 Psychatog
4 Quirion Dryad

3 Daze
4 Force of Will
3 Misdirection
2 Counterspell

1 Time Walk
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
1 Fastbond
1 Regrowth

1 Ancestral Recall
3 Slight of Hand
4 Bainstrom
4 Gush

2 Cunning Wish
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor

1 Library of Alexandria
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Emerald
1 Black Lotus
1 Island
4 Underground Sea
4 Tropical Island
4 Polluted Delta
1 Flooded Strand

SB:
4 Duress
2 Smother
2 Submege
2 Naturalize
1 Diabolic Edict
1 Berserk
1 Recoil
1 Hurkly's Recall --> Ended up taking it out at the last minute seeing no Ducktape and questioning its use overall.
1 (Hide small children, its bad) Fact or Fiction (Go Bad Cards go!!)
* I figure that Having FOF on s/b makes cunning wish never, ever dead. It did help during the tourney, earning its merit in my book.

Alrighty. We get entered and mingle with the other people. Right before the tourney we see no one preparing or playing GAT, Keeper, or Ducktape and a decent amount of EBA, so I took out 1 of my submerges and added another smother, and took out the h. recall (how good was it anyway?) and added a smother, making 4 smothers and 1 submerge.

*Disclaimer- I'm a bit weak on the sideboarding during the tourney. A few matches i wasnt really sure what to do and critique is welcome.

Round 1:
I am playing a brought sui/Lblack deck splashing blue. I didnt see sinkholes and I saw an unearth so im assuming it was not legend black, but I digress..
Game 1- He goes first turn shade. Okay, I can deal with it. I Get a dryad out quick and fend off untill tog can come and clean up shop. By the time Tog comes the dryad is 7/7 or so.
SB: -2 Cunning Wish
   -1 Brainstrorm
   -1 Sleight of Hand
   +3 Smother
   + 1 Berserk
Game 2: He goes first turn: Lotus,land,duress,sack lotus, d consult for hymn. He has 2 hymns in the first 6 and eats up 3/4's of his deck getting the hymn. He casts in and I have no FOW/Mis-d. I am left with 2 lands, a brainstorm, and a mox. Ouch.
In the meantime he burnt 5 cards so I still have the advantage. Also, he lost literally all but 2 of his creatures in the consult. I start to stabilize a bit, but I have a tough time drawing a creature. He wastelands 3 of my lands too. He plays a factory. He plays Factory next turn. Alrighty, im on a bit of a clock now. I am still running on a mox and a land. I drop a dryad and a land. I take the hit for four. I am at 3 life. The dryad is still 1/1. Next turn I topdeck timewalk. I Cast timewalk and brainstorm. Attack and take next turn. I topdeck gush. I gush into a smother. Do a cantrip and say go. He attacks with both, I block one, smother the other. His board is clean and he has not cards in hand. Dryad is 5/5 or so by now so I sit back and he draws nothing to combat it. Close one.

2-0

Round 2:
This guy is playing PT Funk with tempting Wurms in it. The deck actually plays out very well dispite what you would think.

Game 1: He goes first turn shade. I pull pretty much what I did game one of the first match and Win. Psychatog stops whole teams in their tracks. Gotta love it.

I do the same sideboarding that I did against sui.

Game 2: He gets land screwed early but comes back with a hymn turn 5 or so. I Mis-D it and he has no cards in hand with my dryad getting bigger every turn. I won.

2-0

2-0 in the tourney

Round 3:
I get paired up with scott, my teammate. Him packing FOUR MD blood moons doesn't help at all either.
Game 1: First Turn Bloodmoon. Ive tried to play this out before, and seeing hes my teammate I just say fuck it and scoop.
   -3 Mis-D
   -2 Cunning Wish
   +1 Berserk
   + 2 Naturalize
   + 1 Submerge
   + 1 Recoil


Game 2: He hits moon turn 4 with reb backup. I have 1 FOW. I decide to play it out for fun and get creamed pretty quickly.

0-2

2-1 on the day.

Round 4:
Im playing Kid-in-black-shirt-with-bad-logo-on-it (Jared) {wicketsnatcher} playing his Lich Donate deck or some such, which is very impressivly innovated and built may I add.

Game One: I got THE hand. First turn fastbond into gush into hush into dryad into gush into tog. Afer resolving Y will 2 turns later He scoops.

   -2 Cunning Wish
   -1 Daze
   +2 Naturalize
   +1 Berserk

Game 2: I get a good hand again. He plays rector, I counter. He plays balance, I counter. Whilst a dryad is on the table. He burns out quick and I go off quick.

2-0
3-1 on the day.

Round 5:
This is the round where ill be made or broken. My opponent is playing R/G tnt (luckily lacking bloodmoons).

Game one: I get an early start and thwart his hopes by countering survival.

-2 Cunning wish
-3 Mis-d
+1 Berserk
+2 Naturalize
+1 Recoil
+1 D. Edict.

Game 2: I get land hosed by 4 wastlands. He drops big 8/8 colossus that eats my soul.

Game 3: I get a first turn fastbond. I tutor up a yawg will after playing a dryad and lot of gushes. He eats my Mox Jet and I never draw another black source the entire game, Even after gushing once and brainstorming twice. Landscrew is a kick in the gonads.

1-2
in 3-2 for the day. I didnt make top 8.

Well, I had a fun day and got to crack a decent amount of skull but not enough. Scott Made it to top 4 and ended up getting the english drain, spliting it with grand inquisitor I believe (im not sure how they worked it out).

A few words on GAT: It is definitly an excellent deck but no where near what it is projected to be. I will continure playing it but it does get hosed somewhat easily and can crap out on you. grand inquisitor put it best I think:
“***Inserting Personal Gripe***
I have nothing personal against GAT. I think its a good deck and fun to play. I don't think its incredibly dominating, and I have a record of 4-2 against it piloting anything from Emerald Alice, to Oath, to keeper. However, it seems that most of the people who pilot the deck are always whining about how they should be doing better (since GAT is the greatest thing since your mother). It should be clear that GAT does not win 103% vs. anything not playing tangle wire/sphere of resistance. Its good, but quite beatable; especially when played poorly. In short: I think GAT is good, but overrated.***”

*Also, bug shout outs to anyone that played mental magic during the day including me. Fun fun stuff, I must say. Caused a near riot when somone teched out ray(iamfishman) with a kicked jilt. Heh. Also, props to jared for bustin out da KOOKUS on my sorry ass. Needless to say i lost that one.

Props: T&T collectibles for running a great show.
   Scott limoge for top 4ing and grabbing the english drain.
   Dana renfrew for eating 12 supreme tacos over the course of the day.

Slops: My deck, during the TNT match.

Aaron