C&Js was huge last week with nearly 30 people; that's getting up into the area where you are playing musical chairs as well as Magic - the round is called and you better find your opponent fast if you'd like to sit comfortably.
This week it was over 20, which is still a lively bunch. I played Rector Trix to an unimpressive 3-2 last week, but I came into the deck cold and made enough play errors that I figured it deserved another chance.
After playing Van de Logt's version last week I was totally unimpressed by the mana-base. I changed up to Westerdale's version this week and the mana was much more solid. Other than the finals I don't believe I mulled much at all.
The other change was to replace the Rushing River with a MD Seal of Cleansing. This may be a bad idea, but the theory was that I am mostly afraid of artifacts and enchantments. And it's fetchable with Rector. And it just wins when you Donate the Illusions. But the downside is vulnerability to Meddling Mage, True Believer etc etc. Well, you have 4 FoW to try and solve that problem.
I also subbed one Brainstorm out for an Impulse to test. You really hope to play only 4 land during the entire game so Brainstorm-Fetchland is not as likely as when you play control. Still, Brainstorm costs only 1, which is so important when you play with very little land. Undecided on this one; Impulse was great when I drew it, but so was Brainstorm generally.
Also, the Lim Duls Vault got dumped for Vampiric.
Fishhead's Rector Trix (99.9% Westerdale inspired)
R Yawgmoth's Bargain
R Necropotence
R Yawgmoth's Will
R Demonic Tutor
R Vampiric
4 Duress
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Dark Ritual
4 Academy Rector
1 Seal of Cleansing
3 Illusions of Grandeur
2 Donate
4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
R Ancestral Recall
R Time Walk
1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Emerald
3 Gemstone Mine
4 Polluted Delta
4 Underground Sea
3 Scrubland
1 Tolarian Academy
Round 1: Dave (?) with Old School Keeper
Max and Christiaan have brought a bunch of their friends who haven't played T1 since the old days. Dave (?) is playing Keeper, but he doesn't have the Emerald or the Lotus. I also see him play a Serra instead of a Morphling later in the day. Now that is some serious old school.
Game 1: I get an early Therapy and name FoW, which is about the only card you are scared of. I get a quick Rector, flashback the Therapy naming Mana Drain and go to town. I can't Donate right away, but I have a comfortable hand and life total. He Vamps for D-Blow (somewhat current tech) but there is no way to resolve it through my Trix hand of multiple FoW.
Game 2: Everything looks so good for me until he drops Aura Fracture. Hrm. But I get a Rector and fake him into blocking it; his life total is low due to multiple Cities of Brass and he's nervous about the beats more than the Enchantments, which he figures he can deal with via Fracture. I get Bargain, which he Fractures. I fetch Seal with Vamp+Bargain and grab a big handful of cards which includes a Donate to go with my Illusions. Seal, Illusions, Donate, GG.
Match 2: Emanuel with Elf-Ball.
E resists telling me what he is playing and then does just minutes before the round starts. He is rewarded by having to play me.
Game 1&2: I Therapy him naming FoW, telling him that I will just pretend he didn't tell me his deck. It doesn't matter as this matchup is soo very good for Trix and I win two without much opposition.
E has a rather hard day, I see him in a later round getting massacred by Max's Academy. He apparently didn't tell Max what he was playing and Max won the first so quickly that he thought E was playing TnT. "But you played a Wooded Foothills!" Lol.
Match 3: Ken, GroTog
I played this match last week and won 2-1. It's tight, but I think the massive disruption makes it favorable for Trix.
Game 1: I get a lot of quick broken cards; I rip his hand apart and draw my deck. I don't remember much about this game except he explained it to an onlooker as "Fishhead drew an opening hand of all restricted cards." In my defense, once Bargain resolves, I will be playing mostly restricted cards.
Game 2: I have massive mana, Bargain and Y-Will. He counters the first Bargain, but I have enough broken stuff to get it back via Y-Will in the same turn. It really helps to be able to play the same Lotus and Ritual twice. I say go, he plays Tog and Dryad, and then on my turn I start to go to town. I draw 15 cards out of my deck, finding no Tutors or Illusions. It happens, and I die after staring at my lone Smother. Grrr.
Game 3: This one is much more straightforward; Ken's hand gets stripped away and I manage to find some useful cards in my 18. He slow-plays a Naturalize instead of going for the critters, but when the time comes my hand is full of FoW. Drawing 18 extra cards is good.
Match 4: Christiaan (Zalfirin) GAT.
Christiaan is a very strong player, but I am hopeful that my current 4-2 vs. GAT is a valid reflection of the matchup. Together with Saucemaster he was a big proponent of the 3 Duress GAT. I fear Duress.
Game 1: A raging start with Duress, Therapy. I resolve a comfortable Ancestral, since I see his hand every turn. Oddly, the Ancestral is 3 Dark Rituals. But thats good as it allows me to get Rector on the table. Afterwards Christiaan mentions that he didn't ever get the necessary FoW, but the FoW will not survive all that disruption.
Game 2: I get major disruption again, a Therapy to start and then start topdecking Duresses. My game isn't really going anywhere, and he is alway threatening to Gush or something to jumpstart himself. When I finally play the Rector he Brainstorms and Gushes looking for the elusive FoW but can't find it. He has the Mis-D, and I have a FoW so he will win the counterwar if he can find a real counter, but no. I Donate one Illusions and play a second, but can't find the second Donate in the first few cards so I just say go with 38 life. He throws everything at his Tog and makes it about 12 points, then scoops up since he can't pay upkeep next time and I can easily. Afterwards he asks why I didn't go just use my 38 life to get the second Donate and I say that I felt that it was quicker just to say "Go" while holding 2 FoW and counter his next two spells. He gives me a disapproving eyebrow and says "Why not win now and not give me an upkeep?" True, true. But I win and he loses, so I stuff my fingers in my ears and run away yelling "La la la, I can't hear you."
Match 5: Phoung with Hulk.
Phoung must be up over 1600 by now. There's nothing more nerve wracking than playing ringers. Like I said in some other thread, you don't want to find yourself playing 1900+ T2 players with 1600- T1 ratings. I lost to Phoung in the opening round of the last tournament, so I am hoping to come full circle by winning in the last round of this one.
Game 1: I give him a vicious smashing. He scoops when I start a massive Y-Will with Bargain already out and tons of mana floating.
Game 2: He mulls to 6. I mull to 5. I surprise him by FoWing his AK for 3 - Phoung: "You play counterspells in that deck??". That's the advantage of playing someone who's not totally on top of T1. OTOH, without having played the matchup he sideboarded correctly, which is the disadvantage of playing a good player. :-/ We topdeck for a bit and he gets Ancestral into Gush and LoA. He turns to a friend and says, "Whew, I stabilized." I point out that he stabilized when I mulled to five, but I am just being bitter.
Game 3: I Duress and Therapy him, he has Mis-D, Mana Drain, Brainstorm, Duress, DT, Slight and one Land. I am very close to hardcasting the Bargain in my hand, but he TD's Strip Mine and strips my sole White mana in response to Vampric. We then trade horrible errors; I TD Ancestral and settle into a long funk where I try to remember whether he has the Mis-D or no. I have FoW, but no blue card if I Ancestral. How many times have I Duressed 'Tog today? I finally decide it was Game 1 where he had the Mis-D and I go for it. Ooops. He's chatting with his friend, he says "OK", I draw my 3 and tap mana to put Rector on the board, confident of my win. (And somewhat proud of myself for correctly reconstructing his hand.) Right about then, Phoung realizes what happened and leans back saying, "Damn, I am a bad player!". Well, if you are then that means I must have been too.
I have to fetch Necro with my Rector and the game remains brutal. Phoung resolves his own Ancestral and drops two Moxes off it, but still no land. Meanwhile, I struggle on, probably being too conservative with the Necro. It takes me maybe three turns to set up the kill and when I do it I'm so close because of having to pay the Illusions upkeep (and having to fend off a Wish for ReB at EoT) that I have to do it unprotected. I have just enough mana to drop a Rector and survive the incoming Tog, but our comedy of errors ends right there as Phong slow-played a Mox and does not have the 6 mana necessary to pay the 3rd round Illusions. It wasn't pretty at all, but I walk away with the win.
Funny thing: When I went to 1 on the Necro before dropping Illusions the next turn Phoung slammed his deck, hoping to topdeck his SB'd Ebony Charm. (For the +1/-1 life ability.) Little did he know that I had my own SB Ebony Charm in hand.
So that's that, and I break a long streak of so-so performances to collect my first big Foil Elf prize. Yay for a 6CC Elf. Not that its even about the prize - it's a priviledge to have a well attended T1 scene at all, the stack of Elves is just bragging rights when the season is over.
After the whole thing is over, I watch Riz playing with a Tendrils-Academy style deck. How about that Storm mechanic? Huh. Max was so-so on the whole Mind's Desire thing in Academy (and no one plays Academy anyway!) but I am really impressed by that mechanic in T1. It might not be Mind's Desire, but I suspect something is going to get serious broken.
Feedback is welcome, especially from those who have been playing Trix lately. It's a strong deck; kicking GroTog in the crotch isn't going to be as valuable as it was over the last 6 months, but it's still very interesting going forward.
