[Tournament Report] 9th At Hadley 3/6/04

[MadManiac21]

The day begins with my friend Loren (Sympathy4theDevil on the old forums) and I going to bed pretty early (2ish) after getting in some playtesting and gunbound. Oh my god. Go download gunbound right now if you don't have it; it's "Worms: Armageddon!" on crack and played over the internet. Did you type it into your google search? Got it d/led? Good.

We wake up at the reasonable hour of 9:30 and begin to mull about his house. It's at this time when I realize that the tourny is 10 proxies (not five) which means I can basically assemble anything. I had thrown together EBA the night before (as I basically already had a UBw control deck built) and the deck was being pretty nice to me after a three month hiatus from playing it. I think about playing my Rghates.dec, but Loren is using my null rods. We end up arriving at T&T damn early, when there are only like 4 CT dudes muling about. I start to do my classic indecisiveness and not assemble a deck till about 11:45. At this point I've lent out stuff to Jeff Green's friend for hulk and a bunch of aggro cards, limiting my options. I turn to fellow Hadley-er Steve (GI) and ask him what I should play. He looks at me, looks at my pile of EBA cards, and says "Blue is some good, they tell me."

EBA, or BenKowalhatesthis.dec

4 Tundra
4 Underground seas
4 Polluted delta
1 Flooded Strand
2 Islands
1 City of Brass
2 wastes
1 strip
1 Loa
1 jet
1 pearl
1 sapphire
1 b.lotus
1 sol ring

4 phid
3 meddling mage
2 exalted angel

3 duress
4 mana drain
4 Force of Will
3 brainstorm
1 mys tutor
1 dem tutor
1 a. recall
1 time walk
2 stp
1 mind twist
1 FoF
2 stifle
1 balance
1 Y.Will

Kowal does his little spiel to begin, and we're off

Round 1: Mikey P w/ Chris T's Gobbosligh
Game 1: He goes lotus driver lackey strip mine turn one. My island asncestral nets me 0 lands. I eventually find a white source, but am 1 turn away from getting and casting Balance. I get ran over.
Game 2: My deck does its brokeness. Turn one strip sapp walk, untap sea mind twist for 2, getting mountain and lackey. He shows me his 3 gang-bangers in hand, and looks at his land and lackey in the yard. Angel beats ensue.
Game 3: I drop CoP: Red turn two. He drops blood moon on his turn 3. I have no problems with this, as I got like a bazillion lands in hand. We each draw and play 7 lands straight (!!!) before I finally blast his blood moon. I get my turn, draw, and look at my duress-double drain hand. I pass the turn. He swings with dudes, I prevent, he casts blood moon, I drain, then Pop(!!), I drain, then another PoP(!!) I take ten, he flings his fanatic at me for 11. I start to wig out, getting mad about not duressing. The following convo ensues.

Mikey: Damn, I was kinda glad you got rid of my blood moon so I could cast my double PoP. I'd had them for like 6 turns.
Me: Well why didn't you cast them when I had one friggin island and nothing of any value in hand!
Mikey: Cause all you had was mountains!
Me: (Slap head)

I blame the fault of not duressing on his not knowing the rules. Not casting PoP > not dureesing b/c he should have cast it.

0-1, 1-2

Round 2: Jeff's Friend with hulk.
He's using my carads, and they have a way of helping me out when facing me....
Game 1: I duress turn one, drain a couple threats, then play 3 consecutive mages; tog, deed, wish. He scoops.
Game 2: Some of the same, except 2 mages naming deed and tog, and an angel beating for 4 a turn.

1-1, 2-0

Round 3: Ethan w/ Big O
Game 1: Root maze is a bitch, I draw the FoW for it the turn after. Balance doesn't get cast b/c fetchlands such.
Game 2: I don't realize one of his gibbons is active, and I don't FoW a SOTF. I get an angel, but the hoard of rootwallas runs me over.

1-2, 0-2

At this point alot of people tell me to drop and play poker. I decide to play for the hell of it.

Round 4: Kid with Kowal's Ninja Mask.
We had been repaired earlier, so I know what he's playing.
Game 1: 1st turn mage naming illusionary mask. I save all my counters for survivals and my stps for shapeshifters.
Game 2: 2nd turn naming SOTF, of which he has 2 in hand. Angell gets found, beats for the win.

2-2, 2-0

At this point I hear that a 4-2 will make it. Destiny time.

Round 5: Guy from Greenfield with MonoB Mask.
This guy was pretty chill and funny. I crack alot of jokes throughout our games, we and the pairing beside us laugh alot. Note: I had seen him playing a friend earlier, and knew he had mask. I let him know that it was a race to 2 mana for each of us.
Game 1: He duresses, and takes FoW. I strip his swamp. He plays another. He gets 5 straight turns without another swamp. I got my island-tundra before him. Mage comes down, naming mask. I duress to see mask and 3 noughts. Mage = awsome.
Game 2: he Unmasks and plays turn one mask. I topdeck null rod. Unfortunately for him, he doesn't get to play those big 12/12s, but only puny 5/5s that like to farm. I swing when I have angel and mage on the table, him with a negator. He blocks mage, I stifle the destroy permanents ability on the negator (so he doesn't loose lands), telling him I wanna see if he can bust a mask through my double drain-FOW. He can't.

3-2, 2-0

Round 6: Guy with trinisphere
Yet again another opponent who I knew was playing artifacts. Knowledge + Mage = Power.
Game 1: He goes workshop- metalworker. I think, then FoW cause I have strip in hand and I think I can man screw him. He nods, then plays emerald crypt-3sphere. I cry. His crypt gets him down to 2(!!!) life, when he finally gets a welder. I lost 2 of 8 rolls here, so I can't complain.
Game 2: I get THE god hand. Turn one tundra lotus sac for blue null rod and mage naming welder. He looks at his hand, then the board. He attempts to tap his moxes and lotuses on his turn to cast like 3 welders, but then mage walks over and farts in his face. Control forcing turn 1 scoop 4 life.
Game 3: He goes mox mox tolarian tangle. I go land sol ring null rod. He grimmces then passes the turn. I play strip mine. Game.

4-2, 2-1

There's like 3 4-2's, one of them being my new arch teamate-nemesis Dave L (Eastman) who replaced mr. I-kick-your-but-no-matter-what-I'm playing Phelon recently after beating me a buncha times in a row. To keep the streak alive, he gets the 8th place, and I get 9th. And I didn't even get a goblin game! (

Props:
Team Hadley, for always rockin the t1 scene and sending 4 people into t8.
Dave L, for putting my ground seals to sufficient use.
Sam for being such a NINJA!!
Taco Bell, for being....well taco bell.
Magical cards that take up my saturdays.
The guy with the kool pussy shirt; that thing made me laugh.

Slops:
Dave for not getting to the finals and losing to Sam.
Idiots for not trading their duals for my berserked murlodonts.
Brian Phelon, for showing up with poker cards and NOT getting a Hold 'Em game going.
Phelon for being gay. Really gay. So gay all he ever does it talk about gays. And by that I mean slurr them and beat them with baseball bats in alleyways.

[Abhorsen105]

Before this gets moved to a place I can't post, I'd just like to say good job. EBA is definately making a comeback. And meddling mage is just awesome.

[Gothmog]

Ok, I must be an idiot.  I always though PoP wouldn't do any damage under a Blood Moon, explain to me why it does do damage please.

[MadManiac21]

under the new 8th edition rules, Blood moon turns non-basic lands into NON-BASIC Mountains.

[Matt]

He swings with dudes, I prevent, he casts blood moon, I drain, then Pop(!!), I drain, then another PoP(!!) I take ten, he flings his fanatic at me for 11. I start to wig out, getting mad about not duressing. The following convo ensues.

Mikey: Damn, I was kinda glad you got rid of my blood moon so I could cast my double PoP. I'd had them for like 6 turns.
Me: Well why didn't you cast them when I had one friggin island and nothing of any value in hand!
Mikey: Cause all you had was mountains!
Me: (Slap head)

Oh man, there's so much wrong here. The mistake of not Duressing, we know about. But Price of Progress still does damage under Blood Moon (it makes all lands say "Land -- Mountain" which is NOT the same as "Basic Land -- Mountain"). But - and this is what really surprised me - why did you Drain the Price when you had a CoP out that could have easily prevented the damage, and at half the mana?

He attempts to tap his moxes and lotuses on his turn to cast like 3 welders, but then mage walks over and farts in his face.

With Null Rod in play he can't tap his artifacts for mana, and that includes Lotus. If he tried to cast Welders off Lotus, the Mage never even enters into it - the game notices that he couldn't have used his Lotus and backs up to just before the Lotus' mana ability was used.

Good report though.

[Mixing Mike]

Congrats on the fisnish.

The only thing that confuses me is the use of 4 Fetches, and only 3 Brainstorm.  I'm really confused as to why you only run 3.

[sachmoe]

I curse Meddling Mage for naming Mask on me TWICE!

I had a great time at my first real Type 1 tournament and everyone I played against was awesome.  I should probably write some kind of tourney report at some point even though I ended up going 2-4.  

I have to admit that against you, I probably had the most laughs of the day, especially since I knew I had no chance to make top 8 at all.  

[Gothmog]

Thanks for the info on Price/Blood Moon interaction.

[MadManiac21]

Ok, I made a few typos:

@Matt: I didn't have the mana to drain the second PoP; In fact I was tapped out. I must have typed it a second time as I was still thinking of the first PoP (You ever do that? where you type the same thing twice in a row? this is an example). Yea, duress had me mad. It then was nice to me the rest of the day, getting me mage targets.
Oh and he knew there was a rod on the board. I just forgot to say that both null rod and mage went and farted; he just did it for shits and giggles, and it was worth a good laugh to see all his turn one brokeness do nothing.

@Mixing Mike: There's 5 fetchies, and I only had three brainstorm cause I had left my nice foil one at home    I also don't mind only three bstorm, as the phids draw me plenty of cards. This was jsut a really rouhg list, as I haven't played or tuned this deck in ~2 months.

@Sachmoe: It was really cool meeting you, and the games were more laughs then I had the entire day. I hope you can make it down to Hadley and elsewhere in NE sometime for power tournies.

[MikePunk]

sup, I just made this TMD accnt.

it's me, Mike the Gobbo player, you're Calib? right?

WOOT  first post

good thing that i know about the blood moon thing now, that'll help me alot in the future

that sucks, you made 9th -_-

[Smash]

MadManiac21

Think about it. You paid UU to drain a PoP. INSTEAD, you could have paid U to prevent it. Then pay U to prevent the second one.

So while you mocked his lack of rules knowledge, you just misplayed.

[MadManiac21]

Smash, if you read my second post, you'd realized I mistyped. I had no mana left over for the PoP x2 after I drained the Blood Moon.

Edit: Mike, it's good to have you here on the boards. Only t1 talk though, remember!