I showed up to T&T at 12 on the dot, and as usual we weren't ready to start at all. I tend to show up late so as to avoid the whole "pre-tournament madness" of everyone running around tyring to finish their deck. But of course, that just can't be avoided. It's not that I dislike loaning out cards, it's just that I'd like to be able to relax beforehand. So I fulfill the card needs of my Hadley friends, find an empty table and chill out for the pairings. I had promised myself I would top 8 in this tournament, so I turned to my old time Hadley winner- mono blue. However, I expected at least 2 copies each of TnT, sui, and GAT so I knew I couldn't live without the red splash. So here is the decklist:
U/R Phid:
4 mana drain
4 mana leak
4 force of will
2 misdirection
4 ophidian
2 morphling
2 powder keg
2 control magic
3 fire/ice
1 future sight
1 merchant scroll
1 time walk
1 ancestral recall
1 capsize
1 fact or fiction
3 wasteland
1 strip mine
7 solomoxen
1 loa
4 polluted delta
4 volcanic islands
7 islands
Sideboard:
2 flametongue kavu
3 blood moon
4 REB
2 shattering pulse
1 masticore
1 control magic
2 misdirection
ROUND 1- Chris (no TMD name) from Hadley playing Sui
This deck is pretty much the same build as the new Brought Sui presented on this site by Mykeatog. The only difference is Chris runs 2 maindeck Pox, which in all honesty is probably because the kid idols me and I use to run these in my sui deck a year ago I'm a little worried because Mykeatog swept me with his version the week before, but I'm not too worried because I generally own Chris in all tournaments regardless of the matchup.
Game one I start off pretty quick, thanks to an early Ancestral recall. I believe I drainted a hymn to tourach into an ophidian, and hardcasted a misdirection a little later. Morphling eventually comes down to save the day.
Game two I believe was the game I made a super bonehead play and tapped out on my turn to merchant scroll for ancestral. Sure enough, Chris duressed it away from me next turn. However, my sideboard had a little too much hate for suicide, and I walked away with the victory.
Matches: 1-0
Games: 2-0
ROUND 2- Ben K (Summen Saugen on unreg) from Hadley playing keeper
Ben is quite the case. Despite owning not so many of the power type one cards himself, he is always able to borrow his way into a powerful deck (sometimes finding all the cards in just one or two days.) Today he got together keeper. I feel pretty confident in this matchup because as I told Ben, if Zherbus were to ever put out his "Keeper's player entrance exam" I don't think Ben would pass
For some reason these games are really hazy to me. I believe I resolved a pretty early morphling, and rode it to victory. Game two was all about me getting an early phid. Ben tried to keep up by dropping LOA, but when he dropped it it left him with 5 cards in his hand, and next turn he played a land! Then we had a large counter war over something, in which I won, and brought his hand size down to 2 or 3 in the process. This game was pretty easy from there.
Matches: 2-0
Games: 4-0
ROUND 3- Vlad (no TMD name) from Hadley playing r/g aggro
Vlad always builds really cool aggro decks which always have the ability to come out extremely fast. This deck featured some tinderwalls and orcish lumberjacks, as long with berserks and a fling or two. It may sound like a bad deck- but it has the ability to upset some decks.
Game one I counter some important spells, and fire some creatures to clear the way for an ophidian. He tried to berserk it at one point to stop me from drawing, but I had a coutner ready for that.
Game two Vlad gets his perfect start, and drops two or three creatures first turn. I didn't draw any of my sideboard cards (where were you Ftk!) and die pretty quickly despite countering a berserk that would have hit me for 10ish.
Game three my hand is pretty iffy. It was LOA, mox emerald, recall, fact or fiction, force of will, and I forget what else. I know Vlad runs no wastes (only a strip mine I believe) so I keep this hand despite having 0 blue sources. After my first like 5 turns I
finally draw a blue source. I had drawn like 2 moxes and sol ring, so when I ancestral I find masticore, who easily wins this game with six mana on my side of the table.
Matches: 3-0
Games: 6-1
ROUND 4- Scott (no TMD name) from RI playing r/g TnT
Scott is a cool guy that has been to our last three or four tournaments. He always plays TnT so I know i'm in for a tough matchup. However, I have discussed his deck with him before, and Scott is not a fan of running Tangle Wire, so I am slightly relieved. I also know he is maindecking bloodmoons, so this is also good for me.
Game one my hand is too good to drop. I have 2 lands, mox, 2 mana leaks, a drain and something else. As long as Scott doesn't have first turn fat or survival I'm set for the game. What the fuck am I talking about? This is TnT- of course he's gonna have something first turn. Scott plays workshop, monolith, su-chi, and I die five turns later after countering every thing else he plays
Game two I get to side in all my goodies. 2 pulse, some Ftks, I'm ready for this. This game was very close. I counterd his first few spells, then Flametongued a su-chi. However, when I played the FtK I was left without the ability to counter, so of course Scott topdecks survival, and his last card in hand was a creature. Next turn he was able to resolve a welder, and the turn after a su-chi (his only artifact on the board.) Scott was low on life when he attacked me with the su-chi. On my next turn I attacked with Ftk. Scott tried to weld the su-chi with a masticore, but I nailed it with shattering pulse in response to win the game.
Game three I really don't remember in detail. I know that Scott kept a slow hand, and I think I played future sight early. Future sight is too fucking good. I don't remember too much, but I know I won this game fairly easily.
Matches: 4-0
Games- 8-2
At this point Nick (BilltheDuck) and I are the only undefeated people left. I keep telling him that I refuse to ID with him so he reluctantly sits down across the table from me. Needless to say, Nick is quite pissed at me. We roll and I get to go first. After I play about 5 proxied cards Nick realizes that I'm using my 80% proxied Smokestack deck. So we ID and Nick gets insane hands and whoops my Stack deck.
Matches: 4-0-1
Games: 8-2
So I promised myself that I'd make the top eight, and I accomplished my goal. That didn't mean I was satisfied though, I was ready to take this prize home. The top eight turned out like so:
1- Me playing u/r phid
2- Nick playing EBA
*3- Keith (ctthespian) playing TnT
*4- Steve (Grand Iquistador) playing Future sight.dec
*5- Adam (ill_dawg on unreg) playing Stoopid madness
*6- Kuei (local, no TMD name) playing Super Gro **I'm sorry if this name is spelt wrong, if someone tells me I'll fix it
7- Scott playing TNT
8- Chris playing sui
I'm not positive about these seeds, I just know that those are how the matches turned out
Top 8- Chris play Sui, again
This game, in a word, was stupid. I survived the early game, and we were both basically out of cards. For a while it went like this: land-land, creature-counter, land-land, creature-counter. After going card for card for quite some time I find a phid, and he finds a morphling.
Game two was pretty bad for Chris. He had to mulligan down to five when playing first. He duressed me, and took time walk over merchant scroll, which suprised me. However, even after my ancestral he was able to unearth a negator, and I played a phid next turn. He attacked, so I attacked on my turn and drew. Chris was then worried. He couldn't decide wether to attack, or leave the negator open to block. He waited a few turns, then when he attacked again I was able to attack and draw into FUTURE SIGHT. I flip over pearl and play it then flip over lotus. I play that too. Pretty sick huh? Not entirely- there was a null rod on his side of the table. But anyways, I finally flip into a flametongue kavu, when I cast that and target his negator he has 5 permanents on the table (counting negator.) He thinks about what he's going to kill, then reminds me I have to flip over the next card before he decides. The next card is control magic, prompting him to scoop. This was Chris' third time making the top 8 in a Hadley power tournament, and the third time I eliminated him. Sorry buddy
Matches: 5-0-1
Games: 10-2
Scott beats Nick
Kuei beats Keith
Steve beats Adam
Top 4- Steve (Grand Iquistador) playing Future sight.dec
Game one I go first and land go. Steve drops LOA and passes the turn. Luckily I have a wasteland ready for it, so I'm still in good shape. I drop phid on my next turn, and the snake stays on the board, and draws me so many cards. Being the good snake he is he also found my future sight pretty early, and after resolving that I got to use one of Steve's famous lines, "You wanna go on to game two?" Yes, he did
Game two Steve kept a one land hand. I wasted it on my first turn and he casted brainstorm in response. Sadly though, he could only find a mox jet, and I resolved an ophidian on my next turn. Steve still couldn't find land, and after discarding aura fracture I casted bloodmoon a turn or two later. Steve wasn't going to pretend this game was still winnable for him, and scooped two turns later.
Matches: 6-0-1
Games: 12-2
Kuei beats Scott
At this point Kuei had just gone through two tough matches with TnT, and wanted a little break before the finals. That didn't bother me, so I chilled out for a while. At this time I was discussing my deck with Steve and Aaron (kerzkid11.) Aaron questioned my including two control magics maindeck. I told him that in all honesty I had yet to cast it in this tournament, or in my tournament last week. However, I was about to play in the finals vs super gro, so I told Aaron and Steve, "This is the matchup where it proves it's worth. I
will win the finals because of control magic.
FINALS- Kuei playing Super Gro
I just wanna start off by saying that I was impressed that Kuei made the finals. He does not play type one too often, and I believe he borrowed most, if not all, of his deck from Rich, one of the guys that works at T&T. So making the finals and beating two TnT decks in the top 8 is one hell of a task for him to pull off, and deserves some respect.
Game one starts off kind of slow. Kuei gets a werebear, and I get a phid. We fight over something (a dryad I believe) and we both end up with few cards. On my turn I play an island, which leaves me with a wasteland and morphling in hand. Kuei has one card in hand, so I play super suicide morphling (because I have no coutner to back it up, and I leave no blue open when he runs StP.) He has a counter though. He draws and passes the turn. On my turn I draw another morphling. I waste his only white source and I think that also brought him down to only one blue source. I drop morphling, and ride him to victory.
Game two Kuei gets an early mage and names morphling. I play a phid, which resolves. He then played a dryad, and on my turn I drew the bomb to end all bombs. That's right- future sight. Before I cast it I decide to attack with phid because his dryad is only a 1/1 so I doubt he'll be able to play two spells. He blocks with mage. I had forgot about that guy, and realizing my mistake I said to him, "Good play." I still cast sight tough, because I had a force of will to back it up. He counters, as do I, and it resolves. I flip over morphling. Ugh. On my turn I draw it and then flip over morphling #2. Damn. In the meantime his dryad is at 5/5 and he plays another. He attacked, so I end of turn capsize his 1/1 dryad to clear the way for phid. I was able to go crazy on this turn with future sight, and resolve bloodmoon. On the next turn I merchant scroll for fire/ice. Recall and fact or fiction were both still in my deck, but I'm just that damn cool. So I kill the mage, and I got my secret tech in hand. I tap four mana, and cast... CONTROL MAGIC. That's right. I told Steve and Aaron I'd win with it, and that's just what it did. Kuei couldn't counter it, and scooped.
Matches: 7-0-1
Games: 14-2
So I pulled it off. I went in this ready to win, and win I did. Overall it was a great tournament, and I am quite impressed with my results with u/r phid. I only casted capsize twice all day I think, so I may be replacing that with a stroke of genius because I really wanted to fit that in my deck.
Yay!
-Kuei for making the finals
-T&T for holding the tournament
-Adam for taking Stoopid Madness to the top 8
-Leviat- I wasn't convinced on running future sight until I saw your post in the u/r phid thread
Boo!
-Nick, you always suck ass once the top 8 starts
-Mike, you know why
I always like to end my reports with a quote, so here goes:
Quote (hulk3rules @ Mar.29 2003,00:46)So watch out, because I am gonna be tearing shit up at this tournament.
I came, I saw, I kicked some ass
