Well, with the restriction of Gush I knew everyone would want to play 'Tog one last time. But, then, I knew that everyone else knew that we all wanted to play 'Tog. And they knew that I knew...
So I just gave in. 'Tog is fun. I've been playing other decks - I thought 'Tog would be there for me forever! But now she's going and it's time to take her out for one last spin. Despite the threat of a sea of mirror matches or DuckTape varients I broke out the Dryads and the Fastbond and put the deck togther.
I studied the red splash, but Saucemaster has made a convincing case that you can just play Duress without screwing up your mana-base to help in the control matchup. I wasn't impressed with FTK or Rack & Ruin; I thought about Fire/Ice but in the end decided not to. So here we are:
Fishhead's Last Tog
4 Dryad
R Fastbond
1 Berserk
R Vampiric
R Demonic
R Will
4 FoW
3 Mis-D
3 Mana Drain
4 Brainstorm
4 Opt
2 Cunning Wish
R Ancestral
R Time Walk
R Mystical
4 Gush
2 Merchant Scroll
3 Tog
3 Mox
R Lotus
4 Underground
4 Tropical
4 Fetchies
R LoA
2 Island
I talk with Justin (Saucemaster) the night before and he tells me he is running 'Tog. When I get to the site, I Christiaan (Zalfirin) agrees to exchange info, I flash him an Opt and he shows me a Dryad. Arun, who is a strong T2 and EXT player is here with his GroTog too. These are three strong players, I begin to wish that I brought DuckTape.
I think we got just under 20 people, which is so-so in my book. I think on a good day we can get 40 people, but several regular players couldn't show today. I was impressed by the number of new faces who were sporting power though. It would be a good tourney hopefully.
Round 1: Mike (?) with MUD
I haven't seen Mike (?) around before, but he apparently went to C&Js last week when I couldn't make it. He's been playing for a while and has a good knowledge of T1 from what I can tell. I don't know this matchup, but I have been curious about it; I might have played MUD if this hadn't been the last big chance for Gush.
Game 1: He plays Workshop and Metalworker. I play land and prepare to Ancestral. He shows me five artifacts with Metalworker - Grafted, Sphere, Snake Basket, Emerald, X. I quickly size up the Grafted and Sphere as the big threats and decide how I am going to use my one FOW. He plays Basket, I let it resolve. Then he shrugs and goes "Basket for 7 with the rest of the mana." Ooops. Bad threat assessment on my part. I dont think I have a way to win except to Berserk him out here, so I Ancestral and Vamp for Fastbond the next turn. I try to go off, but I can't find a creature to play. I TimeWalk once and end up with about 14 cards in hand, but I just can't fix the Snake problem. I concede rather than show him any more of my deck.
+2 Hurkyl's, +2 Naturalize; -3 Mis-D, -1 Opt.
Game 2: I get all Toggy on him while he isn't really able to mount much. He has a MetalWorker, but I have a Dryad and he gets outraced.
Game 3: He starts fast again (does MUD ever not start fast?) with a land-Lotus-Ensnaring Bridge, but I am able to Merchant Scroll for a Hurkyl's. He plays out a Workshop and one SmokeStack and I topdeck a Naturalize to kill it. He plays a second one, but I am still OK with a Hurkyl's and an early gambit Dryad. I pass a turn, growing the Dryad . When the SmokeStack becomes a threat I send everything back to his hand with Hurkyl's and swing with a just lethal Wish->Berserked Dryad.
Matches 1-0. Games 2-1
Round 2: Arun. (Mirror)
Arun faced Zalfirin in the mirror last round, going to a tight 3 games. "Win the die roll, win the game," they said as I asked if they had any insights on the nature of the mirror. We roll and I win the die roll.
Game 1: Since I win the die roll, I get the first Dryad on the table. It's another tight game, but I am on the leading edge here, my Dryad is always slightly larger. We each build up to the point where we can alpha-strike each other out - if we can resolve Berserk. I debate and debate, but decide to go for it. He only has one Mis-D for my Berserk, my Dryad tramples him to death.
-2 Tutors, -1 Mis-D, -1 Drain, -1 Opt; + 3 Duress, +2 Submerge
Game 2: He gets the first Dryad, but I match him and then follow with a TimeWalk + Opt. The TimeWalk buys me back the turn I lost by going second, and I start topdecking like a madman. Since he mulled to 6 it's not as close as game 1. I finish his last two spells off with Mana Drains; I burn for a total of 4 off it. "Who plays with Drains?", he says. But I am willing to burn for 4 every now and then.
Matches 2-0: Games 4-1
Round 3: 'Sisco (TnT)
Since he's been working 'Sisco hasn't been able to make the Thursday night games. I haven't played him in forever, so I am looking forward to this match. I didn't scout him in the early rounds, so I don't know what he is playing.
Game 1: He plays Wasteland for my Underground. It's OK, my hand has 4 land, including LoA. I Brainstorm EoT. Fransisco often plays Keeper varients and he's burned a Wasteland so I decide to pass so I can activate my Library next turn. He then Land->Mox-TimeWalks. Uh oh. He plays a Fetchie for a Tiaga and I realize that he isn't playing Control; he just got the worlds slowest TnT start. And now I am in a bit of trouble as he resolves a Welder and starts beating me down with it. "I'm going to Berserk him and you'll be sorry!", I say.
He topdecks Workshop and hardcasts Trike and starts hitting for 5. Another Welder follows. Hrm. I have a Dryad and try to use it to buy time by sucking up Trike-counters, but my opponent just ignores the slowly growing Dryad. It turns out he has Tangle Wire. I counter it, but he just welds it back. I float all my mana into my draw step and Brainstorm and Gush like mad. I almost can get back into the game since I draw Lotus, Emerald here and then a Jet off my normal draw. I play a Land and a Fastbond and threaten to go off, but his Trike+Welder means I can't go below 6. I can't pull it off.
SB: Same as MUD.
Game 2: I launch fast this time with an Ancestral during his upkeep so he can't draw ReB. He plays Welder again, but I am just going crazy. I Drain a Juggy on turn 2 and use the 4 mana to fuel a Y-Will which includes my Ancestral again. I become huge and he can't find any real tricks.
Game 3: I mull to 6. He draws multiple fat creatures, but I set up with a Hurkyls and 2 Submerges. He has an early Welder - which I Berserk to death! LOL. "I told you I was going to do that!" Once the Submerges happen, he keeps playing the same two Juggies over and over, while I am generally ducking damage. At the end it's a race, I am below 8. He elects to swing a Su-Chi into my 5/5 Dryad to push a bit more damage through, but its not quite enough. I topdeck Merchant Scroll and use it to fetch my last Hurkyl's. I have just enough to set up a Wish-Berserk win.
Matches 3-0: Games 6-2
Finals: Saucemaster (mirror!)
We elect to ID and split the prize. We play for fun and our games are epic, each one.
Game 1: I get aggressive trying a Merchant Scroll for Ancestral on turn 2 with FoW backup. It turns out his remaining cards are Mis-Ds and FoWs. Ouch. I almost resign there, but an odd thing happens. I topdeck a Dryad and a Tog, then I resolve Y-Will. Suddenly I take an incredible turn and am back in the game. I am Gushing and Brainstorming. We each end with about 4 creatures facing each other and Fastbond on the table, but my graveyard is depleted from the Will. I have to make an unfavorable block and he Berserks for the win. Ooops, won the die roll, lost the game. Thats not good.
Game 2: I play land, he Duresses and takes DT on turn one. I Opt EoT. I play a second land and sit quietly without a DT. So sad. He plays a Dryad, I Duress and find that he has Y-Will, Smother, FoW and some land. Uh oh. I take the Will because he is within a turn of playing Will->Land-Ancestral which is certainly game over for me. I play my own Dryad to suck up some time while he Smothers it. But then I start topdecking Submerges. I start TimeWalking him while he keeps casting the same tiny Dryad. My Dryad gets very large during this and I win.
Game 3: Yet another epic. I start fast with Dryad, Mox, Mox, Land, Duress, TimeWalk, Opt. I Dryad and then Duress, setting up for more goodness. My Dryad gets to around 5, but it is held off by his Tog. The game stalemates and he gains a huge upper hand as I can't find anything useful to do. I slow-play the Tropical in my hand, fearing a fatal Submerge. He gets his Y-Will and gains a big upper hand. I burn up my own TD'd Y-Will into his handful of counters. I draw out a few Counters in this way, though its brutally inefficient. But suddenly I start resolving spells. Over the painful course of a couple of turns I manage to collect a Dryad and two Togs on my side of the table, facing his Tog and large, large Dryad. But, he has lost a lot of FoWs to the 'yard and - better than that - he has no easy access to Berserk due to siding out his Wishes. I topdeck Gush and risk Submerge by at last playing my Tropical in order to draw cards. Our 'Togs are both getting huge and the math gets impossible. "Does he have another Gush? Does he have a Brainstorm? Does he have the Mis-D?" We stalemate. Possibly there were wins in there for someone bold enough to grab them. I am the one who breaks through, first getting a LoA and then a Duress. His hand is full of land, with a Submerge and a Mis-D. I take the Mis-D (my Tropical long since Gushed) and then Wish for Smother. With the 10/10 Dryad gone, I can attack for the win.
The mirror match is very interesting. I may have blurred the details of some of the Saucemaster matches together in my head - since they can go on so long and seem to swing wildly back and forth. One thing that was clear is that the tempo is extremely important; the first Dryad is a big deal, the first Tog is a big deal. Resolving Y-Will is another game-shifting event. This sounds kinda obvious when you say it (duh, Yawgmoths Will seems good!) but what's amazing is how the game really turns on a couple of draws. I can try to slow play and keep control, but suddenly my opponent plays a Dryad and a couple of cantrips to jump back in the game. The amazing sifting power of the cantrips allows people to very quickly set up extremely strong hands; each turn these strong hands smash into each other, leading to a quick round of rebuilding. Topdecking a land during rebuilding is agonizing; your opponent topdecks even an Opt and you scream in frustration.
One observer looked at our depleted hands and said it reminded him of the MonoB matchup. A few dangerous creatures facing off and people smashing each others positional advantage as hard as they can every turn.
That wraps up the day. We each got about $20 in store credit, but the payout was relatively generous for the other places. Third and fourth each got 4 packs, and even everyone who went 2-2 got two packs. I'm good with that; I'd rather a lot of people be happy with their prizes than just one person being very happy.
One funny thing is that, despite everyone here's general impression that Gro is not just a crushing deck - like Black Summer Necro was with it's "Be Necro or be Anti-Necro" attitude - Gro placed in all of the Top 4 slots. One of the 2-2 players had Gro, so depending on the tiebreaks, Gro may have taken the Top 5 slots.
Part of that is that a lot of people who know Gro very well decided to play it as a fond farewell instead of bringing other decks. Part of it is that Gro is just darn good. Did Gush need to go? Well, I never thought so, but today we faced a meta which was just made for Gro to dominate. I didn't see a Chains of Mephistopheles or a Blood Moon. I didn't see a 12/12 trampler on the first turn. I saw a SmokeStack, but it had no Tangle Wire to back it up.
So, does it mean anything, the Top 4 showing for GroTog? Well, certainly something, but not as much as it looks like.
Anyway, enough musing about things that are already done. I had a blast playing GroTog one more time; I win 4 packs of Scourge and a White Dwarf magazine for taking the time to play T1 with a bunch of cool people. It doesn't get much better than that, and if you live in the SF Bay area I encourage you to come on down next month and play some T1.
