Waterbury Report
Worse Than Fish, or "let's go to game 3"
Decklist:
4 River Boa
4 Cloud of Faeries
4 Spiketail Hatchling
3 Suq'Ata Firewalker
4 Force of Will
4 Standstill
4 Curiosity
2 Oxidize
2 Stifle
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
3 Null Rod
4 Tropical Island
2 Flooded Strand
1 Wooded Foothills
2 Island
1 Forest
4 Mishra's Factory
2 Faerie Conclave
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Emerald
The additional basics were added after last weekend's Hadley, and they were indeed awesome. However, I'm going to experiment with some radical revisions. My preliminary thoughts will follow the report.
Sideboard:
2 Drop of Honey
2 Blue Elemental Blast (H2Owned!)
2 Maze of Ith
2 Naturalize
2 Magus of the Unseen
1 Misdirection
1 Black Vice
1 Null Rod
1 Stifle
1 Disrupt
Originally, I was going to go to Waterbury with Jeff Anand, but instead I ended up going with Mike from BC. We were going to caravan, but Jeff is selling cards and therefore has to be there early. We decide to sleep in and drive down on our own. Unfortunately, Mike's roommate's printer wasn't working, so our directions were "take 90 to 84, get off at Waterbury". Simple enough. Or so we thought. We somehow ended up on 95, and drove down to Rhode Island. We even passed by the exit to Aaron Kerzner's house. Eventually, we saw a sign for Hartford Connecticut, and made it onto Route 6, and eventually to 84 and the tournament. We arrived with maybe 20 minutes left for deck registration, and I had to lend cards to several people, and borrow a guru island from Kowal (to go with the guru island I actually own).
Round one vs Nick. I won the die roll, as I would for most of the day. How lucky!
Nick was playing some workshop deck with red for welders. I saw Juggernaut, Su-Chi, Tangle Wire, Smokestack, and Sphere of Resistance, so it wasn't a standard build. Game 1, I get out an early curious faeries, his Juggernaut walks into my factory, and then he drops a Sphere of Resistance, which I answer with a wasteland and a Null Rod. His only lands at that point were Great Furnace x2 and Ancient Tomb x3. I win in short order.
Game 2, I mulligan a decent hand (firewalker, boa, something, land x4) into an amazing one, but he has the turn 1 metalworker, which produces Triskelion and Su-Chi x3, much to my surprise. He wins easily.
Game 3, I think I mulligan again. I get out some small beaters and a Null Rod. I'm attacking for 4 a turn with Spiketail, Cloud, and Factory, and pinging with Suq'Ata, but I don't have any hand left. He drops Smokestack, but all it does is eat my lands while I kill him. Slowest Armageddon ever.
1-0 matches, 2-1 games
Round 2, I'm facing Ted, with a monobrown deck eerily similar to the one I faced last round. I win the die roll again, and mulligan a hand that probably had no colored mana. He gets two juggernauts off metalworker, and quickly wins game one.
Game two, I Oxidize his first turn worker, and topdeck Null Rod. Oh well. I get a curious faeries going, and play a Hatchling. He's forced to tap Ancient Tomb for mana a number of times, and win with a full grip.
Game 3, I mulligan again, and he drops an early Tangle Wire. I can't find enough land to get out from under it (just a fetch and a waste), and in the meantime he drops a Chalice for 2 and a Trinisphere. My life total drops from 19, to 9, to 0.
1-1 matches, 3-3 games
Round 3, I'm playing Loren with what he assures me is "O. Stompy". I win the roll, and open with a Library. He plays Bayou, Lotus, Volrath's Shapeshifter. I Force, and so does he. Then he drops a Quirion Ranger. I play a land and some guy, he untaps, taps the land for G, returns it to his hand, plays it again, taps for the second mana, discards Dreadnought to Shapeshifter, and attacks for 12. I have no answers, and scoop.
Game 2, I have a turn 2 Rod to answer his turn 2 Mask, and I Ancestral into a Naturalize for his Survival and a Suq'Ata and Wasteland for his Shifter. He dies shortly thereafter.
Game 3, he keeps his hand, and drops some dual. I waste it, and he plays no land. He tells me he should have mulliganed. He topdecks a fetch for a forest, but it's not enough. My creatures overwhelm him
2-1 matches, 5-3 games
Round 4, against Dan Richardson, with "One Fish Left" (Formerly One Fish, Two Fish). His deck has Fire/Ice, Razorfin Hunter, Grim Lavamancer, 2x Suq'Ata Firewalker, and REBs. I have Boas, 3x Firewalker, BeBs, and Drop of Honey. It's an exciting matchup.
Game one, I get two wastes and a strip to take out his colored sources. He takes out my manlands with his strips. I get out a curious cloud of faeries, and I manage to get my 2nd firewalker to resolve. I hold off his small army of Mishra's Factories long enough to achieve a win.
Game two, our opening hands are depleted quickly with Forces (I have to double force a Firewalker and the ensuing REB, and he forces maybe a boa). A spiketail (his) and cloud of faeries (mine) trade damage for about 10 turns, until he draws into a pinger and curiosity, and quickly overwhelms me.
Game three, I drop a land, and he opens with land, lotus, UUU, Firewalker. I Force, and he ancestrals in response, but I have my one SB'd Mis-d. I then time walk into three lands for my own Firewalker, and soon get out a second. We were worried that the match wouldn't finish (we had maybe 10 minutes left, and we both like to take our time), but I wrapped it up quickly.
It was awesome to play against Dan again, and he ultimately made top 8, which was sweet.
3-1 matches, 7-4 games
Round 5: Doug with weird Dragon. I win the die roll.
Game one, I mulligan. He opens with Underground Sea, Careful Study. I'm confused, but I let it resolve. He discards Worldgorger and Squee, and I go "oh, dragon". I keep his mana down with a strip and a rod, and he struggles to get out an animate effect, as he only has the one land. He careful studies away a hellkite, but has to brainstorm to find more lands. He gets one, and tries to ritual into an animate. I force. Meanwhile, I'm beating him down. I drop a Spiketail on my turn, and he plays Demonic Tutor. I let it resolve, reluctantly, and he gets a lotus, and plays it. He tries to tap it for mana, but I point out my Null Rod. I swing in for lethal damage the next turn.
Game 2, I comment that I hope to get colored mana in my opening hand this game. He says "no, I hope you don't". And then, I get an opening hand of waste, 6 useless spells. I mulligan into 6 spells, and then into factory and 4 bad spells (bad spells being stuff like boa), and then
I mulligan into factory and 3 bad spells. I mull again into Boa, Sapphire, Trop, but he duresses the Sapphire, and I see no additional land. He combos out a few turns later, once he finds a Buried Alive.
Game 3, I'm prepared to exact my revenge. My only mana sources are Wasteland and Emerald, but I keep anyway, because I have Naturalize, Ancestral, and some other goodies. he opens with Mana Crypt, Badlands, Dark Ritual, Buried Alive. He comments at this point that my wasteland can stop a Hellkite win, but then observes that his Ambassador is in his hand. He drops dragon, hellkite, and squee in the yard, and animates the worldgorger (?). I Naturalize with the CIP on the stack, and the topdeck a fetch and drop a spiketail. He passes the turn. I ancestral into Strip Mine, and drop some more guys. He just scoops.
4-1 matches, 9-5 games.
Round 6, I'm up against Jason with Workshop Slaver, who tells me after the match that he'd heard rumors of MD Null Rods showing up. I didn't write down whether or not I won the die roll, but I think I did. He gets a lot of early mana and a chalice for 2. I use Stifle to drop a Null Rod, but he draws some workshops, and drops fatties before I find an Oxidize, even though I cycle 3 cloud of faeries.
Game two, he gets the Chalice 2 again, but I get Firewalkers. I play a curiosity, and he asks to read it. Between those guys and a factory, I'm applying beats, and I'm keeping him to just Shivan Reefs for colored mana. He can't find a solution in time.
Game 3, he gets chalice for 2 once again, but my second oxidize resolves. He has out Trike, so I drop Null Rod, and follow up with Magus of the Unseen and River Boa. More creatures and factories follow, and I beat him swiftly. Magus + Rod just owns slaver.
5-1 Matches, 11-6 Games
Round 7, Rob "the Swordsman" with the White Knight/Black Knight deck. Like Dan, he and his deck are awesome, and he goes on to make top 16. I lose the die roll.
Game one, I'm holding off a rancored boa with a curious Firewalker, and swinging with some other creatures. I have 2x force in my hand and draw cloud. I just play it, even though I don't need additional beats. Then, when he duresses me, I tap out to force it. Honestly, this was my horrible inexplicable misplay of the day. It didn't even make sense at the time. Actually, no. I can say what I was thinking when I made that play: nothing. Anyway, he then plowed my Firewalker (I'm not sure I even tapped it in response), played a second Rancor, and killed me. Easily my worst played game of the day.
Game 2, he sees not enough lands (my two wastelands help), and he discards a choke at one point. I just slaughter him.
Game 3, it's my turn to see no colored mana. I keep a hand with strip, maze, factory, and stuff. He plays boa, Knight, Knight, Knight. I force two vindicates, and cycle a faeries into factory #2 in response to a wasteland, but he has an edict for the win. I had an early Drop of Honey that stayed in my hand the whole time. Not having colored mana is bad.
5-2 Matches, 12-8 games
Round 8, agains John, with Gay/R. I win the die roll.
Game one, he gets out an early lavamancer, and even though my Firewalker resolves, and second mancer and a walk show up for him. By the time he's down to just one mancer (I had to kill a curious spiketail too), I'm at 3. I ping the mancer, he hits me in response, I stifle, and he misdirects Stifle to the Firewalker! I'm amazed, and that wins him the game.
Game 2, I see Sapphire, Trop, Waste in my opening hand, and get out a quick curious boa, but I see no more land. He wastes, and drops a mancer. I have to waste his volc and trade my boa. I continue to see no land, and I just lose. I had Drop of Honey in my hand the whole game this game too.
5-3 matches, 12-10 games
I was close, but I didn't make the cut to top 16. My tiebreakers were excellent, so one more win would have done it. It was a fun tournament all around, with lots of awesome people there. I got to meet wuaffiliate (and find some cards he almost lost), and I got to see tons of other people. With finals coming right up, I don't think I can make it to another real tournament on the east coast until late August. I might get to see the Bay Area/SoCal people over the summer, but other than that, this was my last real Type one tournament for a number of months. It was a blast, though.
A few final notes: Standstill was awful. I boarded it out so often. I'm going to test cutting Cloud, Standstill, and Conclave, for brainstorm, some creature, and probably some fetches. I want to add Sylvan Library, but that might not work out. I'll wait until after 5th dawn to test anything though, because Razormane Masticore may be a pain. Just for fun, though, here's a list I may begin with:
Neo-WTF.dec (preliminary test list)
4 River Boa
3 Flying Men
4 Spiketail Hatchling
3 Suq'Ata Firewalker
4 Force of Will
2 Stifle
4 Brainstorm
4 Curiosity
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
3 Null Rod
2 Oxidize
4 Mishra's Factory
4 Tropical Island
3 Flooded Strand
1 Wooded Foothills
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Sapphire
3 Island
1 Forest
1 Library of Alexandria
SB:
2 Naturalize
3 Drop of Honey
2 Magus of the Unseen
4 Blue Elemental Blast
1 Black Vise
1 Misdirection
1 Null Rod
1 Oxidize
