Greetings all. I've decided that it's time I started actually posting on TMD, rather than just reading everyone else's posts, and what better way to start posting than with a tourney report? Hopefully this one turns out good. I actually wrote one out last night, tried to post, but having taken 2 hours to do so, my log in time expired and I lost it all
I arrived at the tournament site with my friend and fellow player Joe @ around 11ish. It was pretty dead, but sign up's didn't start til 12 [actually around 1230]. Last time I show up ridiculously early to one of these things. Later on the site started filling up with ppl, and it became apparent that this would be a good tournament.
Most of the good players from the shop I frequent, C&J's, were in attendance, as well as a few new faces I hadn't seen before. Several archtypes were represented here, including 7/10, U/R fish, 4cc, trinistax variants, dragon, madness, and even a few hulk smash (??), in addition to some rogue of course. I was piloting FCG; this was my build:
Mana(25)
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Lotus Petal
1 Sol Ring
1 Elvish Spirit Guide
1 Mana Crypt
1 Strip Mine
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Taiga
4Wasteland
5 Mountain
Creatures(31)
4 Goblin Recruiter
4 Goblin Ringleader
4 Goblin Piledriver
4 Skirk Prospector
4 Goblin Lackey
3 Goblin Warchief
3 Gempalm Incinerator
2 Siege-Gang Commander
2 Goblin Matron
1 Goblin Sharpshooter
Other Spells (4)
4 Food Chain
Sideboard (15)
4 Red Elemental Blast
4 Artifact Mutation
3 Blood Moon
2 Tormod's Crypt
2 Chalice of the Void
Round 1: Rishi with Suicide variant
I didn't know Rishi beforehand, and I had no idea what he was playing. He was piloting a rogue deck full of shadow creatures and pump effects. Didn't seem like much, but it was enough to scare me.
Game 1:
He casts a dauthi slayer on his first turn, followed up by a sinister strength to swing in for an unblockable 5 damage. I manage to cast food chain, but don't have recruiter. However I draw into ringleader, cast it, and draw into another ringleader. I cast it and draw into another, and I'm able to take this game after casting my 4th ringleader and swinging with a bunch of goblins.
Sideboard: I couldn't really think of anything to sidebaord against him. Chalice would hurt me more than him, and really made no sense. No changes were made.
Game 2:
He dark rituals into a dauthi horror with an unholy strength on it. The following turn he casts sinister strength on it and swings for 7. I die a few turns later.
Game 3:
He dark rituals into a dauthi horror, and next turn puts a sinister strength on it. He swings for 5 for a little bit, but I draw food chain & recruiter, and next turn the game is over.
Games: 2-1
Matches: 1-0
Round 2: Brian with Dragon
I know Brian from C&J, and have played against him several times [most of those times ending in him pwning me], so I am more than a little worried before this match, not to mention I fear the dragon matchip because pre-sideboard I have no answers whatsoever. On top of all this, Brian is a very good player and definitely knows what he's doing.
Game 1: I play a lackey, which he FoWs, but I play several other goblins, and finish him off with piledriver beats. I don't kno if he drew bazaar this game, but if he did I must have wasted it quickly cuz I didn't see it very much.
Sideboard: +3 Blood Moon, +2 Tormod's Crypt; -2 Goblin Matron, -3 Skirk Prospector
Game 2: He draws the combo hand and wins on turn 2.
Game 3: I draw into a pretty good hand with recruiter, some more goblins, and blood moon. I later draw into food chain but I want to resolve the blood moon, so I figured I'd use my combo as counter bait. I got both FoWs out of his hand, and resolved a tormod's crypt and blood moon. He hardcasts worldgorger, but it's not enough to stop my siege gang, piledriver, and friends from finishing up.
Games: 4-2
Matches: 2-0
Round 3: Joe with U/R fish
Joe is a good friend of mine, and a pretty good magic player in his own rite. We laugh before the match, as it's the second time in a row we've both gone 2-0 and got paired against each other in the third round.
Game 1: I draw goblins and beat down, and he draws no business. He attempts to curiosity his factory after activating it for 1 time card drawing, but I incinerate it.
Sideboard: -4 Food Chain, -2 Goblin Matron, -1 Skirk Prospector; +4 REB, +3 Blood Moon.
I figure there's no chance of comboing out, and decide to go straight aggro. I leave recruiters in as counter bait, and since they're still moderately good even w/o food chain.
Game 2: I draw into a hand with sharpshooter and REB, some goblins and land. I really want to resolve sharpshooter, so I wait til 2nd turn when I draw into another mountain. I drop my 2nd mountain, mana crypt, and cast sharpshooter, and REB his FoW. On his turn, he floats a red, returns his volcanic to his hand to daze his own daze, and then removes his 2 cards in graveyard to shoot my sharpshooter. Pretty good. I really wanted sharpshooter this game, but I later had double SGC and friends that finished up.
Games: 6-2
Matches: 3-0
Round 4: Jasper with U/G Madness
I don't know Jasper, but apparently he's a friend of Brian's from Eudemonia in Berkeley [go Cal!....well I go to Columbia but.. high school summer sessions! =D].
Game 1:
I draw no business and his moeba's and arrogant wurms beat me down.
Sideboard: +3 Blood Moon, +3 REB; -2 Goblin Matron, -4 Skirk Prospector.
Game 2:
He draws no business, and I draw lots of goblins, I beat him down eventually.
-1 Blood Moon, +1 REB.
Game 3:
This was an interesting game because of my terrible play mistake. Probably the worst play I've ever made in magic. I managed to resolve a recruiter with a crypt, 2 taiga, a foothills and mountain on the board. His board was a mongrel. I pay 3R for a ringleader [not realizing that my warchief makes it cost 2R], so then I have a red floating. Wanting to incinerate his mongrel and not realizing I had floating mana, I pop my fetchland.....OH NO. I realize my mistake as soon as it hits the yard, but it's too late. My stacked goblins go away as I reshuffle my library. HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE play. I definitely deserved to lose this game because of that mistake, but my board position was just too commanding and I win a turn later after dropping another ringleader and REB-ing his FoW.
Games: 8-3
Matches: 4-0
Round 5: Brent with Crucible Stax
Brent also frequents the shop I go to, C&J, but I don't kno him that well, not having talked to him very much. I do know that he's one of the best vintage players in California, and one of the best players at our shop, and so I pretty much accept that I'm gonna lose even before the match begins. However we are informed that my win would mean nothing as I already make top 4, but Brent would need a win to top 4. I concede, not caring about the 5-0, I'd rather get a friend into top 4. We play some games for fun either way.
Game 1:
I draw into double lackey this game, casting both, and lackeying ringleaders and Siege-Gang commanders into play. The game ends shortly thereafter.
Sideboard: +4 Artifact Mutation, -2 Goblin Matron, -2 Skirk Prospector
Game 2:
He manages to cast two chalices, for 1 and 2, but doesn't have any other business spells, and I apply the goblin beats. If this were a real match I'm pretty sure he might have mulliganed into a trinisphere hand, but this game ends quickly.
Games 8-5
Matches: 4-1
Top 4:
1. Brent
2. Christian
3. Devin
4. Brian
Semifinals: Christian with Crucible Stax
I know Christian as he is also from our shop, and I've played a couple matches against him, and also some post tourney texas hold'em, heheh. He is a very skilled player and I have a lot of respect for him.
Game 1:
We both mulligan. I keep a hand of a couple land, lackey and some other goodies, but he casts 1st turn trinisphere off a workshop. Bleh. I play land, go. The following turns he casts smokestack and crucible, inducing scoopage from me.
Game 2:
I draw into a 1 land hand, but it also contains a lotus, recruiter, food chain, artifact mutation, etc. If I had had another land, I might have been ok. However I go for the 1st turn land, lotus, prospector. Pop lotus and cast food chain, remove prospector and cast recruiter, and proceed to stack my deck. Unfortuantely I didn't stack properly most likely, stacking ringleader as 1st and 4th card. Should have stacked to prepare for some kind of disruption. The following turn he fire/ice's my recruiter, and casts smokestack a turn later. I should have planned for something like this, but it's too late. I extend the hand.
Christian goes on to win the tournament and the LoA, beating Brian in the finals.
Overall, it was a great learning experience, and I was happy to finish in 3rd place and get some Arena Serum Visions =D.
Props:
-Christian for winning the tournament...great job!
-Brian for finishing runner up and winning a chains of mephistopheles.
-Brent for conceding to me in the consolation match so I could take 3rd.
-Brent for getting Brian to FoW an imaginary BEB.
Slops:
-Fire/Ice
-TK Noodle for closing at 9, too early for Joe and me to get there and have some dinner.
Lessons Learned: Brainstorm/Fetchland == Good, Recruiter/Fetchland == BAD
