I guess I should post a report too eh? I’m Jeff Blyden, the other madness player at the tourney. All in all, it was a great tournament, although I should not have taken the split that I ended up accepting due to peer pressure (bad card and an equally bad influence). I thought that the split was a little off-balanced, but Nick, and Jeff assured me that they thought it decent, so I said “What the hell!” Anyways, I shouldn’t ramble.
The List4 Bazaar of Baghdad
4 Wooded Foothills
3 Taiga
2 Tropical Island
2 Volcanic Island
3 Forest
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Lion's Eye Diamond
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring
4 Arrogant Wurm
4 Basking Rootwalla
4 Wild Mongrel
4 Squee, Goblin Nabob
4 Survival of the Fittest
3 Hidden Gibbons
3 Fiery Temper
2 Roar of the Wurm
2 Deep Analyses
1 Frantic Search
1 Wonder
1 Uktabi Orangutan
1 Gorilla Shaman
2 Anger
Sideboard[/b]
2 Stifle
2 Dawnstrider
2 Naturalize
3 Ground Seal
1 Duplicant
2 Tormod’s Crypt
3 Null rod
Yeah. Yeah. I'm not fully powered yet, and proxies where not allowed, so give a couple moxen
Looking back at this list, I should have changed the board a bit. With Nick being the only Slaver/Welder player, the Ground Seals just sat there. Oh well.
Round 1: vs Sean Mangner playing FCGThis match is more or less a coin flip. I won the die roll, and chose to go first. Nothing eventful happens, and he does the triple Piledriver thing. The funny thing is, I put his as Madness until turn 2, in which dropped a driver. I had only seen his board prior to the start of the match, and since it looked a lot like mine, I foolishly assumed it. Oh well, on to game 2.
+2 Stifle, + 2 Naturalize; -3 Hidden Gibbons, - 1 Uktabi Orangutan
Game 2 went a little better. I get some early beats on the table, then Sean plays Goblin Recruiter. This normally would have been a bad thing for me, if he had more than 2 lands on the table. You see, Sean forgot to activate his Wooded Foothills before stacking, so the Recruiter was for not. A few flying dogs later, its game 3 time.
Game 3 was probably the best start that I had all day. Sean plays mountain and passes the turn. I draw, then play Taiga, Mox Peral, Lion’s Eye Diamond, Wild Mongrel, Basking Rootwalla, Arrogant Wurm, ditching Anger and Deep Analyses, swing for 7. Good Times.
1-0 [2-1]Round 2: Really Cool Guy playing Sui BlackThis guy was awesome, even though he plays supposedly bad decks, and beats me with them. He’s the guy the guy that just randomly has 4 Bazaars for trade, when your'e in need of 2. Extra’s anyone?
I thought that Sui Black was supposed to lose…a lot. Not the case here. I win game one rather easily, but game 2, he clears the board via Nevinyrral’s Disk and proceeds to smash my face with a Nantuko Shade, while sitting at 3 life. Game 3 went like this: Wasteland, Sinkhole, Wasteland, Sinkhole, Strip Mine. And I had the Anger, Wonder, Wurm, Bazaar, Squee hand. Damn Sui Black.
1-1 [3-3]Round 3: ???? Playing FCG[/u]
I’m sorry for all of the Question marks in the names sections. I’m just really bad with names, and never remember to record my opponents name.
This was a tense match. I did the whole, my creatures are bigger than your creatures thing in game one, and he did the whole I can combo like Magneto/Storm/Cable in game 2. So I’ll only write about game three. Sideboarding was done the same as in round 1.
I open with some fast beats (Rootwallawallawallawalla), but he has a Lackey to trump. We trade as he swings into me, and he then makes a Piledriver. The Piledriver is met with his buddy, Mr. Warchief, the following turn and they make an attempt at my life points. I do some stuff and pass the turn. Now it gets silly. He drops a food chain, and trades some guys for a Siege-Gang. With the Gang-bang commander on the stack, his FC is hit with Naturalize. Frown; or so I thought. He has another and soon makes a Recruiter find some troops. The guys are found, and presented to me, and I could not believe my luck; he had forgotten to grab Ringleaders, and stacks his deck 10 or so goblins thick. I do some fancy stuff and get him down to 1 with a pair Wurms and Rootwallas. I attack into his double Siege-gang, 4 tokens, Piledriver, Warchief, and get 3 for 1 on my wurms. I then drop a dog, and its game over.
2-1 [5-4]Round 4: Allen Cavaness with Sui Black[/u]
I’ll spare you games 1 and 2, because the only game that mattered here was game 3. Have you ever been a position that looked so immensely hopeless, that you just wanted to concede? That was this game. We did the whole nothing plays for a couple of turns, then it gets ugly. He strips my lands down to 2, and plays a Masticore, to oppose my Arrogant Wurm. Frown. I fail to draw land, and pass him the turn. He feeds the Masticore, draws, then attacks. I block, and surprisingly He lets the core die! This can mean only one thing…Yawgmoth’s Will. I look through his graveyard, and notice the Ritual, double Sinkhole play. Not wanting him to do this I say out-loud “DAMNIT!! Ritual Core!”
And guess what? He took the bait. I dance inside for a while, and he passes the turn. Seeing that I’m on a 5 turn clock, I go into topdeck mode, and rip a Survival of the Fittest. I play it and pass the turn. He feeds, draws, and attacks (16 life). I rip a land, and pass the turn back. He once again, feeds, draws, and attacks (12 life). However, he has a Shade to follow his swing, a die a little inside. EOT, I activate survival, ditching a Rootwalla, for Rootwalla2, then Rootwalla2 for a Squee. I draw an LED, play it and pass the turn. He shoots down a Rootwalla and attacks. After a bit of thought, I chump the Core with Rootwalla2. He pumps the Shade twice and passes the turn (8 life). EOT, I survival Squee into Squee2, and Squee2 into Anger.
I return the Squees, rip a Wurm, think for a bit, and make the following play: activate Survival, discarding Arrogant Wurm. With Survival on the stack, I activate LED for 3 green discarding a Fiery Temper, which I then play, for its madness cost, targeting the Nantuko Shade. Survival resolves, and I find Wonder. I then activate Survival again, trading Wonder for Uktabi Orangutan, and cast it targeting Masticore. He taps one, and casts Dark Ritual, regenerating the Core, and burns for 1 as I swing into him. He shoots down my monkey before the Core dies, and then passes the turn after he draws.
I return the Squees, and rip a Wild Mongrel, the last one in the deck! The Mongrel hits the table and swings in deep for 3. He draws, and passes the turn. I survival a Squee for another Squee during his EOT, and then a Squee for the last Arrogant Wurm during my turn. A couple of swings later, its game. What a turn around! Survival is the best card in magic (next to Ancestral Recall, and Yawgmoth’s Will, and Necropotence, and Yawgmoth’s Bargain, and Force of Will, and…lets just move on).
3-1 [7-5]Round 5: ?????? with Mono-brown[/u]
I’m currently 4th , and am paired down and play the guy in 10th. If he wins, he won’t make Top 8, but I we draw, I do make it. I ask him for the draw, and he says “Nah. I’m going to try to keep you out of the top 8.” What a bag! So reluctantly, I smash his face with
4 ARROGANT WURMS and 2 Basking Rootwallas. All he sees are 2 Metalworkers and a couple of lands. After his defeat I game one, he gives me the win.
4-1 [9-5]Quarterfinals 1: Jeff Cosgrove (Layerties) with Tog[/u]
I hate playing friends in the top. Notes are sparse with this match, but I managed the win in game 1, and he top decked a 4th land in game 2 to wish for Berserk wit a full hand and yard.
Game 3, however, was nuts. I’m beating him down with a Wild Mongrel, and get him down to 3. He has 1 card in hand, and draws his card for the turn. He then taps 4 and casts FoF revealing: Force of Will, Force of Will, Mana Drain, Yawgmoth’s Will, Diabolic Edict. I thought for quite a while on this, and decided to do the 4-1 split leaving the edict in a pile by itself. Surprisingly, he takes the pile of 4 cards. Did he have another edict in hand? Nope. He had better.
BLACK LOTUS He goes Lotus, Will, Lotus, Mox Pearl, Sol Ring, Ancestral Recall, Brainstorm, Tog, Diabolic Edict. I thought that that was an amazing run, but he forgot to recast FoF. 5 turns later, a flying Rootwalla, methinks it was a Rootwalla, goes the distance. After we shook, he reveals the top card of his library…Cunning Wish.
5-1 [11-6]Semifinals: Chad Daugherty (Metabubbles) with Keeper[/u]
A couple minutes before the registration, I was stricken with a sickening thought. What do I do about Exalted Angel? Nick (The Advantage) told me that I could just race them, but what if I couldn’t? I changed my Sideboard at the 11th hour, swapping the 3rd Tormod’s Crypt for 1 Duplicant. I’m glad I did. Even though I never got a chance to steal an Angel, it was nice knowing that I could if the need be.
Both games against Chad were rather uneventful. I got incredible hands in both games (game 1: Lotus, Sapphire, Land, Gibbons, Wild Mongrel, Deep Analyses; game 2: double Gibbons) and just overran Chad. I recall a Mox Monkey getting hungry in one of the games and that’s about it.
6-1 [13-6]Finals: Sean Mangner with FCG[/u]
I beat him earlier, so why did I split? He’s a friend of mine, and I always split with friends in the finals. Now, why did I agree to the split that seemed so grossly unfair to me at the time? I guess it was a combination of peer pressure (Chad, Nick, Jeff, and Dale all thought that it was fair) and the fact that I got the Sapphire that I gave him in the split for somewhere near $0 a couple of months ago ($350 for 1x Lotus, 1x Pearl, 1x Sapphire). So I foolishly took the split against my gut instinct. Oh well. Ce la vie.
Looking back at the tournament, I would haved modded the board a bit.
- Dawnstrider is a house! She gives you so many free turns. The down side? I can only draw her in non-tourney games!
- Stifle also proved insane. I wish that I had a 3rd in the board.
- WotC needs to allow 16 cards in the board so that I can play an extra Naturalize too.
[/list:u]
PROPSNick Woolery (The Advantage): For giving me lift to the tourney and for letting me borrow a Bazaar for about 2 hours.
Really cool guy from round 2: For trading me a set of Bazaars. You are awesome
Joel, Chad, Marc, Robert, Dale, Jeff: They’re just cool.
Carlos: For getting Jeff and myself some Subway subs.
Dustin: For holding such an awesome event.
Tim: For being the only person that agreed with me that the split was a off.
SLOPSJeff: For letting my finish a footlong sub before he could finish his first half. AND YOU CALL YOURSELF A MAN!!!!
The hotchick from The Saint Louis Bread Co.: I wanted your number damnit!
Mana Drains: cause I need some now.
