Well, screw it.I mind as well post this now considering how much attention fish is getting at the moment.
Over three weeks late, and most of the details forgotten I have finally decided to sit down and write my report from the Maine Lotus Tourney held on July 10th.
Umm, to skip to the end, I won with GayRed, a deck that I have been playing ever since I saw PTW’s old post on adding grims into mono-blue fish for board control.
For reference, here is the deck-list I ran for this event.
Jared Carter - 1st place
Gay Red
Maindeck:
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
4 Standstill
4 Force of Will
4 Grim Lavamancer
4 Spiketail Hatchling
4 Cloud of Faeries
4 Curiosity
4 Mishra's Factory
2 Voidmage Prodigy
3 Daze
4 Volcanic Island
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Stifle
2 Faerie Conclave
1 Time Walk
3 Null Rod
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Gorilla Shaman
2 Island
4 Flooded Strand
1 Polluted Delta
Sideboard:
2 Maze of Ith-I feel like its a crutch, but still useful
1 Gorilla Shaman-Hott
3 Rack and Ruin
1 Blue Elemental Blast -sweet
1 Firestorm
2 Red Elemental Blast
2 Fire/Ice
1 Stifle- more hott-ness
1 Unsummon
1 Energy Flux
As for the list it is fairly standard as a GayRed deck with the lone maindeck shaman being totally awesome against all the slaver decks I played. I love the overlapping SB, where one card can fill different roles in different matches.
Okay, now on to the report.
This whole thing actually starts many months ago while Jake and I were driving back from the now infamous Stokes’s dual lotus “two round two� tourney in CT. Mind you we live in Maine, which is somewhere in the location of 4.5 hours from CT, and we were also driving down from the University of Maine which happens to be 3 hours from the southern Maine boarder. That was real fun.
Well on this marathon drive we both decided that this sucked, and come hell or high water there needed to be more competitive type one tournaments closer to home. Well, Jake has a ton of power and is leaving for Med School soon, and I have way too much free time on my hands, so enter our idea of holding power tourneys up here in Maine.
Jake supplied the backing, and I advertised the heck out of them every chance I got. I think it is safe to say that we have been fairly successful. We don’t measure our success in money earned (which is good, because it’s pretty non-existent), we measure it in number of people that are coming to our tournaments which so far has been high enough that Jake hasn’t lost any money.
Lots of locals playing Type 1 + not losing money = awesome
This lotus tourney was kind of a cap on our adventure, and honestly I can’t think of a better way to end it. Jake is off to school by now, and I’ll probably play type one for at least a little longer (hopefully the new-ly formed TEAM MAINE will keep me active), but even as an end, I can’t help but feel that we accomplished something during this brief period of time.
Round 1
Andy-UG Madness
This was unfortunate. Andy is a good friend of mine, who not only just started playing magic a few months ago, but also is here at my urging. I know exactly what he is playing because I helped him build and test the deck, and I am also pretty sure that I am walking out of here 2-0.
Game 1
I manage to counter an early madness outlet, which is immediately followed up by me wasting a trop, and striping a forest. The game is basically over before he ever gets going, and my small army of grims, and factories do him in.
Game 2
+ 2 Maze of Ith, 1 Stifle
- 3 Daze
See game one, but this time Andy does manage to get in some early rotwalla beats. I match with a turn two active factory, counter his turn two aqua, and then proceed to win with an active grim with 2x curiosities. I have answers to everything he plays, and he goes down in short order.
After we finish our games, I walk Andy though some of his mistakes (He then goes on to win his next two rounds!), and do a little scouting. To my right I see Belcher and U/G madness, to my left I see Dragon and Gay Red. I also notice that there are at least 3 control slaver decks floating around. This is not so good because control slaver is a match up I have very little testing with.
1-0
2-0
Round 2
Steve-Dragon
Game 1
Steve goes underground -> duress, and I suddenly remember that he was the dragon player sitting next to me round one. Well that’s cool. I manage to waste a bazaar, counter his animation spells along with an early compulsion (go main deck Daze go!) and as quickly as it starts it is over. The fish-less fishies do him in and he falls under grim and factory beats. This game was all about being able to Daze/waste his early game bombs (compulsion/bazaar) giving me the time needed to put him under the gun with my beats and force him to combo out with out without counter back up. When the time came, I had a force, he didn’t, and we went on to game two.
Game 2
+ 1 stifle, 1 BEB, 1 unsummon
- 2 standstill, 1 curiosity
I remember my notes reading something like “stupid good dragon, I hate that deck�
Steve manages to draw a Bazaar, 2 squees and a WGD. Awesome. Massive card advantage follows and when he combos out this time (on turn three) he has the mana for my daze, and a force for my force.
Game 3
This was an interesting game. I play a turn one grim off a volc. Again I manage to knock off his draw engine with wastes and Daze. Eventualy with the help of a very unlucky crypt on his part he is way down on life and absolutely needs to combo out right then and there. He has 5 cards, a WGD in the yard with no other creatures, and no draw engine. I am holding three cards, force, daze, and unsummon. After thinking for a bit, Steve goes for the duress, which I assume precedes an animate spell for the draw. I pause, and then cast my force pitching the Daze. He frowns, looks at the lethal damage on my side of the table and then goes for the animate. I cast the unsummon he has no answer, and *poof*, all of his stuff goes away.
G.G.
2-0
4-1
Round 3
Eric (ELD)- Control Slaver
Game 1
Eric takes factory beats down to 16, before comboing me off with a slaver, lots of spare moxen, and a goblin welder. Before he runs out of moxen, he manages to find another welder and a pentevas. Game over.
Game 2
I’m pretty hurting right now, and I admit to Eric that control slaver is not a match up I have really tested. Because of this I SB completely wrong, bringing in such bombs as 3x Rack and Ruin, 1x Energy Flux, and other random stuff.
This time I manage to bring him down to 11 over 5 turns. After casting multiple thirsts (which I mistakenly let though in order to save my counters for the welders L ) Eric manages to force 2 welders though my counter wall (Force of Will + Mana Drain + lots of spare mana > Force of Will + Daze). Combo starts again and I lose. I show him all the artifact hate and he remarks that they are really too slow against him. I agree, and file that away for later matches with little voices in my head chanting “its all about tempo�.
2-1
4-3
Round 4
Nate (Fellow Team Maine member)- EBA
Figures that I play someone else that I know, but I suppose with such a small turn out that it should be expected. Unlike Andy however, this game is not going to be a bye. Nate has come out to our earlier tournaments, and I know from experience that he is a solid player. We talk for a bit about ID’ing into the next round but we both decide that it would be way to risky. So we are off to the races with…
Game 1
I win the die roll.
I’m pretty sure that Nate is playing goblins (that is what he has placed well with in the past) and as we draw our first 7 I groan when I see the null rod looking back at me. Great, I think to myself, a dead card in hand. However I do have a lavamancer, standstill, and a factory in had so I keep. Turn one, volc->lavamancer, pass. Nate follows up with an underground sea. Ummm, yea… So much for Nate playing goblins. He passes, and now I’m suddenly happy that I have a null rod in had. Null rod tends to be good against anything that has undergrounds in it, so I lay it down and say go. Nate follows up with a tundra and a meddling mage naming standstill (crap), and passes to me. EBA strikes again. In the following turns he manages to swords my creatures, waste my manlands, and lay down another Mage (this one names lavamancer), and then proceeds to beat my face in with the 2/2’s.
Game 2
This time I know what he is playing and I am ready for him.
SB
+ 2 Maze, 2 REB
- Daze, Shaman, Time Walk, Stifle
This game goes much better for me. I manage an early lavamancer with force protection. Nate tries to send it farming, I force. Eventually his angle is met with my Maze, which buys me time to amass a large number of critters. Lavamancer and beats go the distanace and I win at a comfy 13 life.
Game 3
+ Stifle
- Daze
This is a tense game because we both know that a loss at this point in time basically knocks us out of contention for the top 8. Basically it is mages vs. factory beats, with neither of us getting anywhere. I cant seem to make a curiosity stick, and I am starting to get worried about the time left in the match. Finally, with only a few minuets left to go, Nate resolves and angel (frown), and manages to actually flip it over (double frown). My maze tec works for a couple of turns until a waste shows up, but by then time (and our 5 extra turns) are up and we are given a draw.
Round 5
Jason- Gat
Jason is a nice guy overall, but isn’t impressed with my use of standstills in the traditional Gay/Red fish build. He advocates the use of brainstorm and the addition of green to replace the “bad� cards in the deck.
Game 1
I quickly realize what he is playing when he goes for the second turn dryad. It resolves though my force, and over the next couple of turns grows to mythic proportions. My only chance was an early block with a Mishra’s factory, hoping that he had forgotten the ol’ pump for an extra point trick, but he knows and pumps the dryad in response. My little gay fish-ies can’t deal with a 10/10 mad green bitches, and I roll over and die.
Game 2
SB
+ 2 Maze, 2 REB, 1 Unsummon
- Shaman, Stifle, Walk, and something else
Game is going well, with me having man beats under a standstill after countering an early dyrad by him with a force and a Daze. I pull up to 7 cards while my man lands apply the beats when he cast a brainstorm. To clarify, I ask when he cast the Brainstorm (either before or after I had entered my attack phase), he says before I attack, and I say ok. Jason then goes on to draw his three cards with my standstill unbroken, and me not having a chance to respond to his spell?! I call judge, and we are off to game 3.
Game 3
+ 2 Stifle
- 2 Daze
Early tempo on my side rocks the house, with the stifle of an early fetch, and lots of Lavamancer action. He can’t get a Dryad to stick, and the game is mine.
With the Win against Jason I find that I am in 8th place.
The rest of the top 8 was
http://www.themanadrain.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=18391Control Slaver !
Control Slaver !!
Control Slaver !!!
Control Freakn’ Slaver !!!!
Fish
Dragon
B/W control
Top 8
Round 6
Chirs-Control Slaver
Chris was a really nice guy playing (of course) control slaver. I know this going into the round and I admit to some of my friends that I am very worried about this match up.
Game 1
We start off the round with me going volc -> Lavamancer. He follows with a volc, pass. I go for the turn two Null Rod with force back up. My rod meets his force, his force meets my force, and the null rod sticks. From then on I manage to waste all of his colored sources, force his tinker, and very quickly move on to game 2.
Game 2
I think for a while, and decide that Rn’R’s are not the way to play this match. Instead I go for the mad tempo plays
SB + 2 fire/ice, 1 shaman, 1 BEB
- 3 Daze and something else
This time Chris manages a turn two tinker into pentavas.
This also means that I scoop 3 turns later after doing nothing meaningful.
Game 3
This time I manage a first turn mox monkey, and again have a turn two null rod. Chris cant draw a land to save his life (literally) and again the match finishes pretty quick. All in all this was by far the quickest of the top 8 matches with all three being decided with in the first 5 or 6 mins of the games.
Round 7
Mike- Control Slaver
Okay, by this time I am amazed that I have gotten this far and basically stop taking notes all together. I am tired, hungry, and my head is starting to hurt. Mike however is a nice guy which makes the matches much more fun.
Here is what I remember of these matches.
Game 1
I win.
Yea, detailed I know, but looking at my life totals I see myself falling to 19 from a fetch. This means a first turn Grim or Shaman. I also know that I had a fairly early null rod, and was also hit by a fire/ice bringing me down to 16. His life falls much quicker and eventually ends at one/zero. Null rod is a house against this deck, and an early one really makes the control slaver squirm.
In either game one or game two I manage to mulligan to 5 cards.
Game 2
This game is much closer, with the fishes and null rod doing their thing. However, my clock takes way too long, and he manages to get a welder to stick. This along with a huge graveyard and lots of mana give him the courage to try for a yargs will. It resolves after some counter stuff, and then he starts to go for the win. At some point down the line he manages to pitch his only win condition in the yard, its RFG, and that’s it. I am now on to the final match.
Round 8
Shay-Control Slaver
Yea, so by now I am really tired. It is now near 9:30, and I have been here forever. Neither Shay nor I want to split, so we play it out. If you want all the play by play action, I’d suggest reading this
http://www.themanadrain.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=18321&highlight=It’s a very well done turn-by-turn replay done by Meddling Mage (Mike) from Shay’s point of view.
Highlights from these games include;
-Me having to read FTK many times
-Making lots of jokes at Team MeanDeck’s expense (Those on the top make for easy targets :-p)
-Me playing a null rod early both games
-Rich not having a plat angel to SB in against me
-Me thinking myself very clever for SB in Maze of Ith for the third game (don’t ask)
- The game, which finally ended at 11 ish
I won the first game, He won the second after a huge yarwgs will, and I finished him on the third game.
And that was it, I won, and the lotus was very much mine.
*I took horrible notes, which I then proceeded to lose, and now the only thing that I have to work with is my life total sheet. Heh, suffice it to say my memory is not perfect and if any of my opponents want to add or correct, feel free to let me know.
So, there it is. Only three weeks late, and now completely out of date. If I had to do it all over again, I don’t think I would have changed a thing about my deck. The one stifle and shaman main deck were hott, both being extremely useful in different matches. Dazes were amazing, and I tried to keep them in whenever I was going first.
I would like to Thank Jake for putting up the Lotus, CYOA for hosting the event, all the people who made the drive out, and all of my opponents thoughout the day.
I should be holding more power tournies thoughout the school year, so if you are ever up for the drive look me up. Ill be posting all the info on the TMD boards.
Go Team Maine
pce out
-carter
