How to Break the Ninja Curse - Germbus in NH Report (losar!)

I was milling over what to play for this tournament for a while. I wanted to bring Ninja back from the grave, but unfortunately I backed out because I'm not confident in the slaver matchup yet, and I determined Germbus to be really good at smashing my face.

When you can't beat em, join em.

Especially when Dr Sylvan, hi_val, and Klep tell you the same thing.

Germbus: Kowal Remix (aka I netdeck Zherbus and Carl.dec)

4x Force of Will
4x Mana Drain

4x Brainstorm
3x Skeletal Scrying

3x Cunning Wish
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Mystical Tutor

2x Swords to Plowshares

1x Fact or Fiction
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Time Walk
1x Yawgmoth's Will
1x Balance
1x Mind Twist

2x Gorilla Shaman
3x Exalted Angel
1x Decree of Justice

1x Black Lotus
1x Sol Ring
1x Mox Sapphire
1x Mox Jet
1x Mox Pearl
1x Mox Ruby
1x Library of Alexandria
1x Strip Mine
4x Wasteland
4x Flooded Strand
3x Underground Sea
3x Tundra
2x Volcanic Island
2x City of Brass

SB:
3x Red Elemental Blast
2x Blue Elemental Blast
2x Disenchant
2x Rack and Ruin
1x Coffin Purge
1x Skeletal Scrying
1x Vampiric Tutor
1x Fire/Ice
1x Gush
1x Swords to Plowshares

And cheering me on from the sidelines
1x Jun Minagishi Angel
1x Jun Minagishi Soldier
1x Signed Artist Proof Carpet of Flowers (which was supposed to be loaned to wicketsnatcher, but he couldn't show due to car trouble)

I make the fatal mistake of not sleeping before a tournament (as proven by my posting in that thread at like 4am) and though I felt great on the way up to New Hampshire, I would later be able to blame my poor playing on exhaustion.

We do deck reg, I borrow some stuff I was too lazy to plan on having beforehand, and then Zherbus shows up and we laugh at people proxying Kird Ape. Eventually the pairings go up, and we go to find our opponents.

Apologies for anything poorly reported, as I said, I get to blame sleep deprevation fucking with me.

Round one: Elyas Machera (hadley guy) with Forty 40'sb (hybrid of 7/10, stacker, and BSR basically)
Game one I lay an island and pass. He drops a workshop and plays Sword of Fire and Ice with it. I mystical on his endstep for Ancestral, Ancestral myself, drop a land and a mox, and cast Demonic Tutor. He drops a Shivan Reef, and plays Juggernaut. I untap, cast Time Walk, drop some lands, wish for Vamp, Vamp for Will, Will, Walk, Ancestral in to whatever I feel like having in my hand, and he picks up his cards when I hardcast Angel off a lotus.
Game two I resolve an early monkey, and keep his threats off the table. Should any resolve, my hand had two plows, two rack and ruins, and a disenchant at the ready.

This match was over in 7 minutes.

2-0-0, 1-0-0

Round two: Some guy with Rectal Trix
Game one he goes Scrubland, Mox Pearl, Mana Vault. I'm wishing I had Plow, but he didn't have a rector to play. I went land go on his face, and he spent his turn casting Demonic Tutor, presumably for said rector. I mystical on his end step for Time Walk, drop a land, cast the walk, drop a waste, waste his scrubland, and drop a monkey to eat his pearl. He can't find mana for a couple turns, and by the time he does I've twisted his good cards away. He decides scooping is the better part of valor and we move to game two.
He opens with Mox Diamond, Mana Vault, Scrubland. Um, right. He cabal therapies naming Force of Will, and he doesn't hit anything. He doesn't yet have the rector though, and he passes. I land mox walk, waste his source and pass. He drops a sea and passes. I vampiric tutor on his endstep for wasteland, drop it, kill his sea, and drop a sol ring. He draws, casts FoF, and reveals Ancestral, Brainstorm, Donate, Force, and Academy. He hasn't made a land drop yet, so I split it Academy/Blue stuff. He takes the academy. I demonic for a wasteland, and disenchant his diamond soon after. He scoops when Angel brings me to 32 life.

This match was over in 5 minutes.

4-0-0, 2-0-0

At this point Zherbus and I joke about being the only people undefeated in games (though apparently the Dragon player was also 4-0-0 and we just weren't aware.)

Round three: Zherbus with 4cControl
We ID, but we play it out for fun.
NINJA CURSE
I bust out the Ninja playmat and joke about the dark curse I afflicted upon him with my enchanted space ninja. This ninja was given to Steve before round one started at a Hadley for 'good luck', when he proceeded to lose two or three straight matches in a row to an eleven year old, and a dude with reanimator (he cast twister and lost hard because of it)
Game one I drop LoA go, and he tries to keep up while also trying to find a waste. I draw 12-15 cards off LoA before he can do anything about it, and go combo with Yawg Will. Decree tokens combo with Angel for the kill.
Game two he goes LoA go. I go land, mox, walk, land, ancestral, sol ring, scrying for 2, go. He decides I must have found an angel in that drawing, and so he must look for removal immediately. He tries to go ape with land and moxen to cast big scryings, but he has trouble doing it because I'm holding a fistful of blue. He starts cycling decrees, but after I'm in total control, I just cast an angel and start winning the life race. I keep his white sources down so he can never resolve his own angel, and I win.

This match was over in 20 minutes.

6-0-0, 2-0-1

I AM ALL THAT IS MAN.

Round four: Some local with Draw7
This kid was mad cool. I voted for him to get the best sport award, because he kept on smiling and joking while I was crushing him. At one point my Demonic Tutor resulted in the destruction/negation of four of his permanents (in to gorilla shaman, which eats LED and Sapphire, negating Academy and killing Glimmervoid) He never really has a chance to go nuts, and REB catches his wished for Returns in the nuts.

This match was over in 10 minutes. The dude was awesome and hooked me up with fries. Fries rhyme with mise. I eat them and resume my rampage, only to fall to...

8-0-0, 3-0-1

Two rounds to go, and I only need to win one of them. I consider IDing my way in, but I make the right call by not doing it because later I would discover T-Funk did the same and drew in to 9th. Carl Winter, eat your heart out.

Round Five: Random guy with Goblins (not even close to FCG as GI pointed out)
Game one, mountain lackey. My brain goes "FCG, mise." and I start working my way up to winning. Lackey swings, and drops piledriver. Mentally I go "sweet, no Siege Gang, no recruiter, no Ringleader, the day is mine!" I had tutored for plow, but Balance showed up anyway, so when he played more stuff, I balanced his board away. I play an angel and figure the game is over. He drops lotus. I'm like, kay. He sacs it for red. Big surprise there. Then he bolts the angel. I'm like "wtf? bolt? whatev." Then he incinerates the angel. I'm like "wtf? fucker." then he drops pile driver. Then he drops Warchief. Then I die.
I board in Silver Surfer technology, and we go to game two.
I'm in a winning position. I kill his dudes, my manabase is solid (a sea, a tundra, a pearl, a sapphire, and a city of brass) when he drops Blood Moon. I have no counter, but I figure who cares? I have Bebs and shit. I topdeck no beb, no disenchant, no wish, no tutor, and no moxen or lotus. One turn away from being able to just win a la lotus/will/lotus/beb/balance/win, he drops a fucking Goblin Lookout, pumps his dorks with it thanks to Warchief, and swings for just enough damage to kill me.

h8.

8-2-0, 3-1-1

I shrug it off. Only one match left. As long as I crush one more goober, I'm in anyway. I go to watch Zherbus' match against Suicide. Suicide guy has 3x Swamp and 1x Petal in play, with no cards in hand. Zherbus has 2x FTK, 3x Force, 1x Decree, Balance, a million land, and three soldiers in play. It appears to have been a slaughter.
"You don't like my deck very much, do you?"
"No dude, he's all about your deck, he made a forum JUST for sui!"
Physical Incarnation of TMD: 1, Physical Incarnation of Sui: 0
owned.

Round six: Grand Inquisitor with Hybrid Hadley thing
Game one I keep a hand of bunches of mana sources, angel, and demonic. I figure 5 strips and tangle wire hate a bunch of land, and stupid creatures hate a big flying angel. I get mauled by Sundering Titan.
Game two I'm in the winning position. I've twisted his hand, killed his threats, and I'm beating down with Angel. He's at 18 (which is really low considering plow got him mad high) and I'm holding Decree, Force, and BeB. I figure with force backup, I can just cast decree for an angel and start beating face with it. That way, I win before he topdecks juice to put his Sword on. Turns out, he's able to win through force with a juggernaut wielding a sword, and a sundering titan. Had I kept the Decree, I could have created enough goobers with decree to just chump block 4L and gain so much life he couldn't kill me before Angel killed him. I lose to myself.

8-4-0, 3-2-1.

I get 10th place, just behind Tony Lopez, the T-Funk. I play a one dollar ante match with him to simulate the goblin game, and I crush him in short order. Said dollar would be spent on a third of my burger later on. I determine my losses in this tournament were because of Zherbus leaving early, thus lifting my ninja magic from the venue.

However,

The tournament was a blast. Despite the massive holdups through pizza breaking and pre-round oneage, it was organized fairly well, and was a damn good time. I'm glad to see it went so well for them.

Props:
The store. Type one tournaments are sweet, and now these guys know it.
Zherbus, for attending an event. holy fuck d00d!
Pern, for driving our asses up there and back
My round 4 opponent, for being a great guy and giving me mise-fries.
Elyas Machera and GI, for t8ing with that pile
and hulk3rules, for making it to finals with a Berserkless Hulk. WTF!

Slops:
hulk3rules, for forgetting Berserk is a good card to have in a Hulk sideboard
Me, for playing like shit after round 4
Zherbus' immune system, for causing him to barf and go home early
NH cops, for blocking the onramp to 495 south.
Wendy's, for fucking up our order (I wanted bacon damn it, and I said no tomatoes)