3CB Tournament #37 Results and Discussion

[wonkey_donkey]

I’d like to congratulate Nibble and (ahemhem) wonkey_donkey as the winners of 3CB Tournament #37
A smaller tournament this time, won by a strong deck and closely followed by one that is about as subtle as a brick.
There were no winners of the mise-prize.

The rules for this competition will be: Anything Goes!

Banned list:
Portal
Unglued
Black Lotus
Mesmeric Fiend
Blackmail
Chain of Smog
Hymn to Tourach
Cabal Therapy
Encroach
Mind Swords
Forget
Anvil of Bogarden
Strip Mine
Wasteland
Raze
The Rack
Wheel of Torture
Balance
Meddling Mage
Show and Tell
Isochron Scepter
Phrexian Dreadnaught
Lion's Eye Diamond
Evil Presence
Sea's Claim

Entrant – Deck Name – Deck

1. wonkey_donkey – The Harbour – Mox Sapphire, Rishadan Port, Imaginary Pet
2. combo_dude – They are coming – Hickory Woodlot, Tempting Wurm, Tempting Wurm
3. Paloma – rolleyessmiley.dec – Mishra’s Factory, Sheltered Valley, Maze of Ith
4. BlueJay – Web of Will – Saprazzan Cove, Avatar of Will, Web of Inertia
5. LotusHead – Confiscate.dec – Saprazzan Cove, Confiscate, Gilded Drake
6. Lelolith – Bebbles.dec – Island, Tidal Visionary, Blue Elemental Blast
7. r_x_ - GG.dec – Treetop Village, Eladmiri’s Vineyard, Nantuko Vigilante
8. Fastbond – wonkey_donkeyisthegreatesever .dec – Mishra’s Workshop, Serrated Biskelion, Ferropede
9. Pinky – Starsky.dec – Mercadian Bazaar, Starke of Rath, Karakas
10. ?Isuck@MTG? - O MY GOD I HOPE THIS WORKS.dec – Mox Sapphire, Mishra’s Factory, Mana Leak
11. Lyrrhus – Sligh – Mountain, Goblin Vandal, Lava Dart
12. Matt – This is absolutely Terrible – Fountain of Cho, Coretapper, Darksteel Reactor
13. Zelc – I’m not original – Forest, Eladmiri’s Vineyard, Words of Wilding
14. Nibble – I can’t think of a good name - Mox Sapphire, Rishadan Port, Imaginary Pet
15. I Against I – Jakub Slemr – Undiscovered Paradise, Shadow Guildmage, Swords to Plowshares
16. xrizzo – soldiersonparade.dec – Savannah, Eladmiri’s Vineyard, Mobilisation

How to read the table:
Match the deck# on the left with the deck # on top. The #s on the right of that deck correspond to how many points that deck received versus the deck on top. (Append as necessary. The first digits are missing to make the table more clear)

0  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6   Total
1| x 4 6 6 6 0 6 3 6 4 6 6 6 2 0 6     67
2| 1 x 6 0 2 6 6 6 0 6 6 6 6 1 6 6     64
3| 0 0 x 0 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 6 0 0 2 0     22
4| 0 6 6 x 2 2 0 0 2 6 6 6 6 0 0 6     48
5| 0 2 2 2 x 2 0 0 2 2 2 2 0 0 2 0     18
6| 6 0 2 2 2 x 0 0 6 2 2 6 0 6 0 0     34
7| 0 0 2 6 6 6 x 6 6 2 6 6 6 0 6 6     64
8| 3 0 2 6 6 6 0 x 6 2 1 6 0 3 6 0     47
9| 0 6 2 2 2 0 0 0 x 6 6 6 0 0 0 0     30
0| 1 0 2 0 2 2 2 2 0 x 2 6 6 1 2 6     34
1| 0 0 2 0 2 2 0 4 0 2 x 6 0 0 2 0     20
2| 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 x 0 0 0 0     2
3| 0 0 6 0 6 6 0 6 6 0 6 6 x 0 6 6     54
4| 2 4 6 6 6 0 6 3 6 4 6 6 6 x 0 6     67
5| 6 0 2 6 2 6 0 0 6 2 2 6 0 6 x 0     44
6| 0 0 6 0 6 6 0 6 6 0 6 6 0 0 6 x     48

Final Standings:

1: Nibble 67
wonkey_donkey
3: combo_dude 64
r_x_ 64
5: Zelc 54
6:  BlueJay 48
xrizzo
8: Fastbond 47
9: I Against I 44
10: ?Isuck@MTG? 34
Lelolith   
12: Pinky 30
13: Paloma 22
14: Lhyrrus 20   
15: LotusHead 18
16: Matt 2

Another interesting tournament this time, nearly won by an extremely strong deck beaten only by 2 very interesting storage-land deck this time, although it also loses to combo_dude’s pet deck of <3sphere. Nibble and I had strong decks for this format as swords was conspicuously absent from most decks, as were mishra’s workshops to go 3-3 with us. And Port is a machine, often holding off decks that would otherwise win comfortably against us.

I’d like to give an honourable mention to matt for playing a quite spectacularly awful (by his own admission) deck. On the plus side, it does beat scalding tongs, but not a lot else! It’s also good to see very few mise-decks around now, as this only makes each tournament that bit better. Oh, and Fastbond's deck name was entirely his own choice - I can post the PM if you don't believe me   .

Let’s see what happens next time!

Please post corrections/discussions.

Tom

[r_x_]

Me vs. ?Isuck@MTG? - O MY GOD I HOPE THIS WORKS.dec – Mox Sapphire, Mishra’s Factory, Mana Leak

I think the results should be 4-1 for me instead of 2-2. When I go first I get Vineyard in play and can attack. If he blocks he dies on mana burn, if he doesn't, I will win the damage race.

[wonkey_donkey]

Me vs. ?Isuck@MTG? - O MY GOD I HOPE THIS WORKS.dec – Mox Sapphire, Mishra’s Factory, Mana Leak

I think the results should be 4-1 for me instead of 2-2. When I go first I get Vineyard in play and can attack. If he blocks he dies on mana burn, if he doesn't, I will win the damage race.

He doesn't ever have to attack - if you try and drop the vineyard, he simply mana leaks and you lose.

Tom

[BlueJay]

Got to Top 8. Very nice. But back to the drawing board. Got to win the next one!!!  
Btw don't you guys think that Rishadan Port should be put in the watch list?   Or is it too soon to judge?

[wonkey_donkey]

Btw don't you guys think that Rishadan Port should be put in the watch list?   Or is it too soon to judge?

It's on the watch list - however, I'm still not sure whether to ban it. The imaginary pet deck is about the strongest deck that can be made from rishadan port, but it gets beaten by any cheap removal. It's about the hardest call to make about whether to ban a card - whether a deck that isn't winning tournaments can be considered dominant, and hence whether it needs banning. I'm going to risk saying no unless there are other supporters of the ban, simply because there's no point banning something unnecessarily. Is this fair?

Tom

[BlueJay]

Actually i allways find it sad to ban a card but Rishadan does make all the storage.dec obsolete. So it is a point to consider if banning. But i guess time will tell and since this is just for fun we'll see how people adjust and see what they have to say about it. To each deck there is a counter deck. I guess time will tell  

[combo_dude]

a strong deck that is about as subtle as a brick

Damn I'm proud. :lol:

Seriously though, I never thought this recently-become-JP's-Tog-SB-tech-utter-pile would win.

As for Port, I'm in the same boat - I don't think it needs to be banned, but it does need watching carefully. It's quite odd actually - the old boards had a huge banned list, and even though we've pretty much halved it, there haven't been problems.

Interestingly, I think that if a <3sphere deck was in, then it would have been 5th with 55 points (Zelc would pass me as he would 3-3 me); amusingly, a <3sphere deck would have also let the pet-deckers win the tournament by one point...your loss.

Oh, and Show and Tell can probably be unbanned, since Show and Tell/Saprazzan Cove/Form of the Dragon is hit by Lumbercrack, any decks with enchantment removal, any decks with Duress, and most other decks that can normally deal with storage lands; these tend to have their threat down early (i.e. earlier than turn 5, when S&T comes down), so it's probably safe. This is a discussion better off on the other thread though.

[Matt]

Damn! I ALMOST managed to get a perfect 'nothing' score.

[Paloma]

I was pretty sure I registered a Blinkmoth Nexus in the place where you have Mishra's Factory.

If I didn't, then.. I'm a moron. Could you check for me even so?

Anyway, I'd still have rolled to two Tempting Wurms, so good luck on the next round, everyone.

[combo_dude]

And I checked - Nexus makes none of your matchups any better. In fact, the only two that change are against r_x_ and Matt - both become losses.

Yes, you'd even lose to Matt.

I wouldn't bother changing, if I were you.

[Nibble]

Woohoo, tie for 2nd in only my second try, I'm happy. And nice deck wonkey_donkey

Port is quite a powerful tool, as it ruins the gameplan of a lot of decks, and absolutely trashes storage lands.. should definitely be watched, but I'm with the general consensus here, being - don't ban it just yet.

[wonkey_donkey]

Made a mistake with Nibble/myself vs. combo_dude: It should be 4-1 to us, as going second we don't have to play the pet - instead, we can just tap the woodlot in his upkeep. Therefore there has been a change in winners.         .Thanks to Erdrick for pointing this out to me.

Tom