[Report] Double-Lotus Tournament

Hello, everyone. Just to let you know (so that you may discontinue your reading if you wish), I did not do well at all; I am writing this report because I've never written one before and I thought I might give it a shot.

This is the eleventh Power tournament I've been to (including the four or five ones we've had locally), and, just as I'd done before, I did a pretty terrible job of winning. By that, I mean I lost. A lot.

So anyway, I worked until 12:45 AM the previous morning and me and four friends...

(three of them are on TMD:
Mat, whose TMD name is: TheHamburgler / Greg, whose TMD name is: Plainswalker / Chris, whose TMD name is: TheHuff)

...went to Greg's house to playtest and sleep and stuff. The fourth guy was Jeff who was just going up to this thing to do some massive trading.

We all wake up at about 5:30 AM and leave by 7:30, stopping at Burger King and making the three and a half hour drive up to CT from the Cape.

We get there, I see a few people I know (such as Ben Kowal, a couple of awesome guys from the Vineyard, and Mike Small and Chris Ahern) and we register our decks. Here is the badness that I've been playing for a while and decide to play today:

For the Glory

4 Black Knight
4 White Knight
4 River Boa

3 Rancor

3 Sphere of Resistance
3 Null Rod
4 Duress
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine

3 Vindicate
2 Swords to Plowshares

2 Sylvan Library
1 Necropotence
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Regrowth

1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Emerald
4 Windswept Heath
4 Bayou
4 Scrubland
4 Savannah

Sideboard:

3 Planar Void (3 x proxy)
3 Perish
3 Choke (1 x proxy)
2 Swords to Plowshares
2 Diabolic Edict
2 Rule of Law

Moving on...

Round one versus Ashok (M. E. T. H. O. D.) playing TnT:

He asks me who I am on TMD, I tell him, and we reminisce for a bit about the "Politics" deck that I'd had going for a long time. I'm glad that he liked it, even though I still think Iridescent Angel is t3h win.

Game 1:
We get alot of Wastelands going back and forth, but he is able to come out on top, pulling it out with big fat brown guys.

Game 2:
Rancored Black Knight pwns all Su-Chis!

Game 3:
He plays a land, I Duress and find no legal targets, he then topdecks Survival and proceeds to ruin me.

0-1, 1-2

Round two (or is it?) versus Sam Best with Keeper:

Game 1:
He throws down an early Monolith, I throw down an early Null Rod. Eventually, through alot of Wastelands and a Sphere of Resistance, I'm able to get him down to one with a lone River Boa. On that turn, with four lands out, he Cunning Wishes for Swords, Swordses Boa on his turn and Wastelands my only remaining land. I'm left with no permanents in play except one Sphere of Resistance.

Game 2:
I side in Choke and eventually resolve it, though it really doesn't do much of anything, for he has two moxen, Sol Ring, and one Volcanic Island, not to mention Counterspell on a Scepter. Eventually, he topdecks Yawgmoth's Will, getting back the Tolarian I Wasted and casting Decree of Justice for five Angel tokens. Pow.

REAL(!) round two versus (and I remember the name, too) Ben Reilly:

He must've been one of the guys who dropped due to the pairing mishap, so I get the win. Woo-hoo?

I still feel pretty bad, because not only did Sam's win versus me not count and I didn't get the loss, but I now had a win that I didn't really deserve.

Regardless, I move on.

1-1, 3-4

Round three versus (I'm sorry, I forgot your name, but I remember your Gumby shirt) with Food Chains Goblins:

Game 1:
He does that thing where we wins real quick like.

Game 2:
I drop a creature. He drops a creature. I drop a creature. He drops a creature. It goes this way until we each have five creatures in play, all of mine with first strike / regeneration, none of his with a toughness greater than two. For me, this is an obscene amount of creatures and I only know I got lucky drawing them all; he'll soon overrun me. A much quicker death ensues when he topdecks Chains of Food next turn.

1-2, 3-6
Now, at this point, I'm still under the assumption that the tournament is eight full rounds long, so I keep playing. Who knows? Maybe I'll get top sixteen or something.

Round four versus (I forget the name again, I apologize) with Stasis:

He starts the round off by saying "I'm playing an old favorite." I respond by saying "I'm playing a bad deck." We continue.

Game 1:
He does successfully drop Stasis a few times, but he has played a Howling Mine and I resolved a Sylvan Library, so I'm digging deep and drawing a TON of cards. I win with five creatures in play.

Game 2: He has three islands and Chain of Vapors his Stasis back to his hand twice in a row. Personally, I think that, throughout both these games, he made a few bad choices in deciding when and when not to let Stasis go. I resolve Necropotence and win with five creatures in play aqain.

5-6

Round five playing Keith (ctthespian) with U/W Landstill:
Keith is a cool guy and he's played at at least one of the local tournaments we've held, so I'm glad to be paired up with him.

Game 1: He and I both see plenty of Wastelands, a White Knight and a River Boa get Swordsed and lands come in for the kill.

Game 2: I resolve Demonic Tutor for a Black Knight, he is allowed into play, and two Rancors find their way to him next turn. As wicked cool as this was, eventually, my opponent resolves Moat while I'm at eight and makes two swings with a pair of Conclaves, finishing me off.

2-3, 5-7
At this point, I've had my fun and I drop.

It was a good time overall and I picked up some ridiculously awesome stuff; I now have a set of BB Bayous and Scrublands (including a Beta Bayou and Alpha Scrub), and I'm completing the Savannah set with an Alpha and a FBB from a local guy I know. Also, I picked up a set of foil Saga Duresses, a foil Windswept Heath, and a foil River Boa. I'm still missing one foil Boa. Damn.

Me and Ben Kowal went outside and talked about Memnarch for a while. I hate Memnarch. He is SUCH a loser. It's not even because he's used in 'Slaver. I just can't stand him. Seriously, what's cool about a guy who steals peoples stuff? If he had the chance, he'd take a tricycle out from under a two-year-old just 'cuz it's made out of metal. What a jerk. I hate him.

Props:
Rich, for winning. I don't know you very well, but good going.
Black and White Knights, for not being legal targets for Misdirected Vindicates.
Jeff Anand, for being ridiculously cool.
All of my opponents, for being cool as well.
Everyone and everything I'm forgetting.

Slops:
Ninja exits, for being as stealthy as the wind in the trees in Feudal Japan.
Memnarch, for sucking.

Thanks for a cool tourney, and thanks for reading this.