Cut down, not sideways-- Cape Cod Report (Dead Last)

[Ridiculous Hat]

I'm gonna follow Ray's advice here-- "I don't care if you came in 1st or 191st, write a report."  Well, I won two games over the course of the day and overall was generally terrible at Magic, so I'm gonna write a report to get the general populace of the board feeling better about themselves.

Let me introduce myself.  My name's Ben and I'm from Acton.  I'm 17, a high school student, and completely obsessed with magic in all its forms.  I used to play mostly PTQ formats and type 2 (and I did end up Q'ing for a PT) but now I play mostly type 1 and 5-color because they're better.

I ended up bringing DeathLong to the event.  I barned this deck off Smmenen after watching nearly all of his matchups at Waterbury.  It seemed good and my playtesting was going well, but it seemed somewhat inconsistent (FORESHADOWING).

I arrived at the site about an hour before the actual start time or half an hour before the announced time with Don, Ashman, and Dan, half of my test group.  We had some tasty Papa Gino's pizza followed by hot trades.  I had many people interested in my Beta Sapphire, which may in fact be the most beat card I've ever owned.

Let me tell you a little about this bad boy-- I got it for under $200 three days ago.  You know why? It is beat to shit, bent in half and wearing away all over the place.  It is not possible to riffle shuffle it without breaking it in half.  If you flop it around in a sleeve the half that you are not holding will actually bend back and forth.  I ended up "upgrading" to Don's unlimited sapphire at the end of the day by throwing $25 at him, but you're not here to read about that.

After some hot 5-color action against Dan and testing the Long mirror against Kerz, round 1 pairings go up and I'm playing Rich Shay-- great, a testing partner in round 1.  We know exactly what each other is playing too-- and he put Chalices in his board under my recommendation before the tournament starts.  Sigh.

Round 1-- Rich Shay (The Atog Lord) with Counter-Slaver (no workshops, drains-- go read his report)

Game 1: He threw this game away.  I go t1 Xantid Swarm and he says "Sure".  He goes Island, Mox Pearl, go, upkeep ICE YOUR LAND(!?!).  I go off shortly after he can't play spells on my turn for some reason and he dies with two Drains and a Force in hand.

Game 2: Mulligan.  I have Emerald and Lotus in my hand with a Brainstorm so I keep. He goes first turn land, go.  I draw a Pearl and lay a land and say go.  He untaps, lays another land and plays a Chalice for zero.  Unfortunately I have no force.  I then topdeck an Academy and curse the heavens for mocking me so.  Eventually I scoop after he gets complete control.

Game 3: Mulligan.  My hand is fine but his has a Force of Will, a blue card, and a Drain.  He holds me off for a while and then Welds a Plat into play.  My Naturalize is countered and I end up with no cards in hand.  PLATINOWNED!

0-1 (1-2)

I don't do anything meaningful before the next round so I'll cut to the chase.

Round 2-- Mike D with Hulk (no TMD name)

Game 1-- He has a Drain and a Force and I run out of threats-- he IntuAKs, draws a bunch of cards, then Vamps for a Force of Will and shows it to me along with the other counter in his hand.  Pack it in boys.

Game 2-- I have a couple Glimmervoids and a couple moxen in play and I resolve a Windfall into land, land, Xantid Swarm, Brainstorm.  I cast the Xantid Swarm and say go.  He EOT Wishes for Vamp, untaps, Vamps upkeep, plays a Deed, then plays a Mox and blows it for one-- I lose 5 permanents.  From there it was academic.  PERNICIOWNED!

0-2 (1-4)

After the match, Mike says something that I found amusing-- "Only Smmenen can play that deck."  I'm kind of disheartened after that Obliterate targeting me, but I'll live, I guess...

Round 3-- Xellos Metallium with some awful UB control deck.

Game 1-- I cast a draw 7, he Forces, he plays Underground Sea, Lotus Petal, Ritual, Nantuko Shade(!!!), go.  I untap, cast another draw 7, and go off and win from there through the force that I got off it.

Game 2-- This was pathetic.  He gets a turn 1 Ritual-Negator and Forces my first draw 7.  I draw a Xantid Swarm and resolve it while I'm at 9.  He hits me down to 4 and says go-- I untap, bash with Xantid Swarm, and go off savagely, generating 9 mana with a storm count of 15 after which I Timetwister.  Then I draw Mox, Mox, Vault, Crypt, Mine, Rotation, Swarm off the Twister.  Burn to death.

Game 3-- This was worse.  After Death Wishing myself low and getting a couple key threats countered, I td a Memory Jar, play it, and pass the turn.  He untaps, Ancestrals, draws a Ritual and uses it to get out an UNDERWORLD DREAMS(!!!!!!)-- did I mention that I was at 5?  I pop the Jar in response and there was no Force of Will anywhere. UNDERWOWNED!

0-3 (2-6)

I drop and hang myself with my own tongue.

I'd post my decklist but A) It's Smmenen's and he asked me not to and B) it's crap unless you write lengthy articles for StarCity on the vintage metagame and don't think Keeper wins against everything.

Props:
Don for top 8'ing with GAT
Dan for top 8'ing with Parfait
Andy for top 8'ing with Madness
Rich for top 8'ing with CounterSlaver
My group for testing with me
My store for selling me a beat to shit Sapphire
Padded chairs for generally being awesome
Adam Bowers for playing Scepter-ReapLace

Slops:
Dan for playing freaking Parfait
DeathLong, for sucking
Me, for sucking harder
Andy, for choosing his girlfriend over Madness when asked which he'd prefer (my reasoning to the contrary was that Madness had more than one Wild Mongrel)

This was definitely a great event and I had a blast being there even though I crapped out.  If you have the option to go to this store, do so-- padded chairs fucking rule.

[Smmenen]

Great report.  

Part of the reason I chose LongDeath for the Waterbury is becuase I knew it would be a major surprise.  With that out of the bag, you are left with a pile of extremely powerful cards - the best in the format but with some pretty glaring weaknessees that have to be carefully shored up.

Steve

[Petko]

Oh, man. That's tough!

Underworld Dreams!!!  :shock:

[McDoogle]

I completely don't understand, the deck seemed good against everything when we tested.

::sigh::

[Laertes]

Thats rough.  There is only one questionable move.  In game 2 VS The Atog Lord, dumping the 0cc artifacts ASAP would have been worse for the tendrils, but helped you for the possibility of chalices that you knew he sided-in.  It sounds like you played flawlessly other than that- if that was even a mistake(?).   Even though your finish was disappointing,  you chose a strong deck and played nearly flawlessly- which is all you can ever do.

[Ridiculous Hat]

Thats rough.  There is only one questionable move.  In game 2 VS The Atog Lord, dumping the 0cc artifacts ASAP would have been worse for the tendrils, but helped you for the possibility of chalices that you knew he sided-in.  It sounds like you played flawlessly other than that- if that was even a mistake(?).   Even though your finish was disappointing,  you chose a strong deck and played nearly flawlessly- whish is all you can ever do.

Thank you for the compliments, but I am not sure I played flawlessly-- there were a lot of small decisions I didn't go over in detail in the report and I would not be surprised if I made many misplays over the course of the games.  I do feel like I have a good understanding of the deck but I am not Smmenen, and as such I probably screwed up somewhere.

[The Atog Lord]

Very well-written report, Ben.

In all fairness to Ben, he met with a decent amount of hate. Right before the event, there were rumors that Deathlong would be popular and more than a few players scrambled to include sideboard hate against the deck. I myself threw three chalices into my board, and those resulted directly in a win against him in our second game.

Also, Ben must be the bravest magic player ever. At under 100 lbs, Ben was comparing Andy's girlfriend to Wild Mongrel. Andy is by far the strongest Magic player I've ever met.

[Jakedasnake]

Tough luck, hopefully you enjoyed the experience?

DeathLong is crazy hard to play (well, the version I've been playing with), and it dies pretty easy to hate.

Anyway, nice report.

[Samite Healer]

Speaking of hate, I didn't get to play Ben but I was packing:

4 Sphere of Resistance
3 Chalice of the Void
3 Pyrostatic Pillar

Indeed there was much hate.  Good report though, and Ray is right, it is definitely worth posting one.  If I didn't suck so much at remembering play-by-play details, I would write one every time.  Instead, Jarad covered the final match.

[The Atog Lord]

Jeff, I have a terrible memory. However, I take notes while I'm playing, and then am able to write a report later with those notes.

[Hyperion]

Slops:

Andy, for choosing his girlfriend over Madness when asked which he'd prefer (my reasoning to the contrary was that Madness had more than one Wild Mongrel)

*If* you had a girlfriend, I am sure you would make the same choice yourself, though it is admittedly not a choice I hope to have to make. Ben - it's like picking Platinum Angel over Betrayal of Flesh in draft :lol:.

Thanks for writing a report.

[Samite Healer]

Jeff, I have a terrible memory. However, I take notes while I'm playing, and then am able to write a report later with those notes.

True, but I find that sometimes if I am too busy taking notes it affects my gameplay.  I probably won't screw up or anything, but I feel that my absolute priority during my tournament matches is to play as best as possible and that is where my focus should be.  More power to those people that can do both.

[tehmajickguy]

A very well written report it was. And Ray is right, regardless of how good/bad you do at a tourney, writing a report is always beneficial, in helping you and others analyize your deck and the decisions you made in your matches. We all make mistakes, but making them helps us learn from them. I did horribly in Waterbury playing GAT, but I wrote a report regardless, and it helped me learn from my mistakes. But look on the brightside, even though you didn't do well, you don't have BigChuck busting your balls about how you play all the time like I do

[DEA]

Andy, for choosing his girlfriend over Madness when asked which he'd prefer (my reasoning to the contrary was that Madness had more than one Wild Mongrel)

you just made my day  :lol:

[rozetta]

Underworld Dreams!!! :shock:

Type 2 tech?

[BreathWeapon]

If Long was a difficult deck to play before restriction, its a total Lobotomy now. The deck is just way too draining to play, but you get props for trying your best. Win, lose or draw there is always something to be learned ... and a losing tournament report is WAY more interesting than a winning one

[XellossMetallium]

heh i remember that match   props to my crappy deck

[PandaPokemon]

Underworld dreams as a sideboard card?  Hehe =P  Well written.  Always nice to see the weaknesses of certain decks since all we get is reports by people who Top 8 that go

Round 1
I own with <crazy infinite combo> <large beaters on second turn> <total lock down>

Round 2
See above

Round 3
Some guy playing a 500 card deck

etc,etc...

[jazzykat]

Thats ok dude. I am going to play combo tonight, everyone will side in their hate vs. me (they read the boards and they know what I am up to) and my friends who don't post will just roll over the combo haters. I will write a report about how I came in like last, but at least I have ass loads of hate for haters (Marilyn Mansion wrote: Hate the haters...).

I will write a report as well as I tizzank out. Then we can lament together.

J Kat

[XellossMetallium]

i usually get knocked out of the CC tourneys just shy of the T8. you guys can look foward to tourney reports from me from now on   also after the upcomming one on the 27th i'll post my deck and see what improvements you guys can suggest.

this site rocks, thanks to matrix for telling me bout it