The Official Worlds T1 Side Event Tournament Report Thread

[Webster]

So here it was: Worlds 2004. Nothing out of the oridnary from a GP or PT other than some European eye candy and a bit of a language barrier every now and then.

I felt like I was at Frank & Sons in SoCal; hot wouldn't be an acurate description. I was under the impression that, being literally five feet from the San Francisco bay would mean that the venue would be enjoyable, not the hell's kitchen that it was.

In any case, it was Saturday afternoon. I had been getting less sleep than I would have liked for the past few days, but, alas, the venue closed at 3 AM. With drafters always there, it was hard to leave anytime before 3 AM   .

I find out that there are ninety-something people for the type one which means that there will be a lovely seven rounds before the cut to top 8. An immediate feeling of pity went through my mind for the head judge in charge of this tournament.

As for my deck, I went with the ever trustworthy gay/r A.KA. fish.dec which had become ever so popular because of its success in recent publicized tournaments. I am not someone who jumped on the bandwagon at the last moment. I've been playing fish since it really was fish (i.e. lord of atlantis, rootwater theif, etc.). I chose fish because I have had great success with it for the last 18 months.

I remember reading a post which talked about why people who played with fish are generally not as good of players as those who chose to play "broken" decks because, generally, fish loses to broken draws. I wanted to prove that good players still play fish.

GAY/r

1 gorilla shaman
4 grim lavamancer
4 cloud of faeries
4 spiketail hatchling
2 voidmage prodigy

4 force of will
2 daze
2 stifle

4 curiosity
4 standstill
R ancestral recall
R time walk

3 null rod
1 crucible of worlds

R mox sapphire
R library of alexandria
R strip mine
4 wasteland
4 mishra's factory
1 polluted delta
4 flooded strand
4 volcanic island
3 island

SB:
1 blue elemental blast
2 fire/ice
2 suq'ata firewalker
2 maze of ith
1 stifle
3 red elemental blast
1 energy flux
3 rack and ruin

Some notes about my decklist:
1. I don't believe in faerie conclave. They are horrible. They come into play tapped, nonbasic, not good with daze. I know they have great synergy with standstill but I have to draw the line somewhere. Whenever I see one in my opening hand, I want to mulligan them away.

2. I think crucible is too strong to not maindeck. There are 5 fetch lands and 5 strip lands in the deck along with recurring mishra's factories.

3. I dislike running 1 stifle and 1 misdirection in the maindeck. Misdirection is far less usefull than stifle in most matchups which, in my mind, warents it being cut from the deck.

Round_1: Mono-U

GAME_1: There isn't much mono-U can do against an active Kai while a group of 3 assorted fliers smashes his face in. B2B doesnt reasolve nor does keg.

-1 crucible, -1 null rod, -1 standstill, +3 REB

GAME_2: He gets his sapphire + island hand which makes it hard for me to resolve and early threat. I force an early B2B which lets him resolve a suq'ata firewalker. Needless to say, the firewalker keeps my side of the board clear as I can not keep anything relevant in play.

-1 gorilla shaman, -1 grim lavamancer -1 cloud of faeries, +1 standstill, +2 suq'ata firewalker.

GAME_3: I get a good board position resolving ancestral, cloud of faeries, and spiketail hatchling. This is where the game went bad though. I have no other draw in my hand so I REB his force against my curiosity. Next turn he resolves a firewalker and I know I'm in some trouble. I need to draw into time walk and stifle so I can cast my own firewalker, time walk, and stifle for his firewalker's activation. I dont draw very well and more and more turns go by. A B2B seals my fate as I lose.

0-1

ROUND_2: U/G/? Antifish

GAME_1: He wins the dice roll and starts off with "gemstone mine, go". I go through all the relevant decks that run gemstone mine: the man show, TPS, draw-7. I don't have force in my opening hand + draw so I decide to play a fetchland and say go instead of stripping in case i draw stifle which I thought was better than stripping vs. TPS/draw-7 even though if my matchup were one of those decks keeping a slower hand. Next turn, my opponent plays sapphire, yavimaya coast!?! river boa. I look at the daze in my hand and the untapped gemstone mine   . He then casts curiosity which I daze removing my island from play. I have a factory in hand along with wasteland so I can hold off the boa for a few turns and allow myself to set up board position. An opposing wasteland, hidden herd and MAINDECK! suq'ata firewalker make sure that my plans are foiled as I get run over.

-3 null rod, -2 curiosity, -4 standstill, +3 REB, +2 fire/ice, +2 maze of ith, +2 suq'ata firewalker.

GAME_2: I have to mulligan to six and keep a fetchland + business hand including grim lavamancer + curiosity. I play the grim and pass the turn. He has the waste for my volcanic (yea, that hurt) and I don't draw land for 2 turns which is more than enough for me to be in a very bad position. I pack my cards up.

0-2

ROUND_3: mono-U mesmeric orb/brain freeze randomness

I was about 90% sure that I'd be facing a lot of randomness at 0-2 . Surely enough, I found it as my round 3 opponent sat down.

GAME_1: I get 3 beaters going but he resolves 2 mesmeric orbs and a howling mine. I get decked before I have lethal.

-3 null rod, -2 stifle, -2 grim lavamancer, +3 rack and ruin, +1 energy flux, +3 REB.

I didn't see him cast and relevant spells that would make his brainfreezes even close to lethal so I sided the stifles out.

GAME_2: Fish does what it is supposed to. God I love sideboard cards. I rack and ruin a chrome mox and howling mine, daze an orb, and REB his force for my daze. An energy flux seals the deal as I have wasted two of his four lands.

GAME_3: I get a man early with curiosity but am unable to counter a turn-2 orb. I draw rack and ruin a turn later and take out his orb + howling mine. he cant really recover since his draw is based mostly on having howling mine in play. My deck's redundancy is too great and he rolls over.

1-2

ROUND_4: RED "GOBLINS"

This guy was from Bakersfield, CA which is about 4 hours south of the Bay Area. He plays at a local Carl's Jr. unfortunately because there aren't enough local shops supporting magic. He was a nice guy although not very experienced in competative play.

GAME_1: I get a first turn lavamancer which, suprisingly, does not get killed on site. Rather, a goblin lackey is put into play which is fine by me because i have 1 fetchland in the yard and 1 more in hand to fuel my lavamancer. I resolve cloud of faeries and spiketail hatchling; the cloud has a curiosity on it. A null rod + standstill ensures that his cursed scroll will not be enough to save him from my 1/1 fliers.

-4 standstill, -4 curiosity, +1 BEB, +2 fire/ice, +2 suq'ata firewalker, +2 maze of ith, +1 stifle.

GAME_2: I have never drawn so poorly in quite a long time. I do have a maze around for a long time and resolve a suq'ata firewalker. I make the misplay of fireing a piledriver for 1 instead of 2 thinking that my firewalker will finish the job (yea, I swear I've been playing this game for 9 years and not 2 weeks). I finally start drawing some gas but not before he has resolved a blood moon. I get some dorks and overwhelm him. After the match, he said to me that he hadnt been able to get any REB's for the tournament. Bad times   .

2-2

ROUND_5: slapjack

GAME_1: I play first finally. I resolve a turn-2 null rod for his first turn underground sea, mox, disciple of the vault, sol ring. I think that I am playing against an aggro affinity deck because I see no trinket mage and no salvagers. The null rod proves too strong for him along with the 2 wastelands that I draw. He scoops.

-4 standstill, -1 crucible, +3 rack and ruin, +2 maze of ith.

GAME_2: I find out that he is playing slackjack and no an aggro affinity deck as he forces my force targeting his auriok salvagers. He has lotus + spellbomb in yard but decides for some reason to enlightened tutor for mox pearl. I have stifle in hand for his salvager activation next turn but it isn't enough time for me to find a null rod. I look at the maze if ith in my hand and just shake my head in disgust.

-3 rack and ruin, -2 maze of ith, -1 grim lavamancer, -1 cloud of faeries, +3 REB, +4 standstill.

GAME_3: Spiketails + multiple strip effects are pretty good is all I can say. I have a curiosity on a cloud going in on turn 3 off my turn-2 play cloud, untap strip mine + island, cast curiosity, strip your land. He can't resolve anything relevant and concedes the match.

3-2

ROUND_6: U/r phid

I am playing against my friend Andre who says he is 0-7-1 lifetime against me. I didn't think it was that bad but he said he checked the match record status.

GAME_1: He gets his turn-2 phid dazed while I resolve lavamancer, spiketail and curiosity. His strip effects hold my factories at bay but it is not enough to stop my men. He finally draws another red source (the first was wasted in a hastely manner) but it isn't enough to save him from my last turn with him being at 2 life:

ME- "cast time walk."
HIM- "resolves."
ME- "cast grim lavamancer."
HIM- "mana drain."
ME- "cast grim lavamancer."
HIM- "that's pretty good. scoop."

-2 stifle, -1 null rod, -1 curiosity, +3 REB, +1 BEB

GAME_2: We trade spells 1:1 back and forth for a few turns then he resolves tinker for darksteel colossus (LAME!!!)   . He is at 15 and I dont have enough pressure on him. I lose.

GAME_3: This is a long game. He resolves a turn one blood moon but I have fetched out a basic island already and have one more in hand. I had kept a 3 mishra's factory hand with standstill and spiketail playing first which I though would be adequate enough. However, due to the resolved blood moon, I had to wait on dropping standstill. The spiketail, which resolved, went into combat 15 times over the course of this game (yes, that hatchling was a workhorse). He breaks the standstill at end of turn with an impulse and then tries to resolve a morphling with 4 untapped nonbasic lands. He only has the 2 islands to cast the morphling so I don't even have to consider an opposing mana drain. I say to Andre, "I wonder if you thought about this." "I cast REB targeting the spell Morphling". He says, "Yea, I didn't think about that". Morphling gets placed in the discard pile   . Unfortunately, several turns later, a tinker resolves for darksteel colossus and I lose. Whatever.

3-3

ROUND_7: mono-G

This was a very interesting match.

GAME_1: I know the deck I am facing because we played next to each other in an earlier round. He plays first with a quick opening of forest, emerald, wall of roots. I play a grim lavamancer. Next turn he plays a ravenous baloth which resolves (my dazes and forces dont like being in my hand apparently). Next turn I have sapphire, stripmine, crucible. Over the mext few turns, I take hits from the baloth while a curious spiketail flies over to get me deeper to a solution for the baloth. I have a mishra's factory that I can use in conjunction with the grim lavamancer to kill the baloth but two timely wastelands prevent that plan from taking place and I am forced to chump block for a few turns with a grim and a cloud of faeries. I was planning to shoot the baloth with double lavamancer but a masticore prevents that from happening at end of turn because he has two wall of roots out; so I have to shoot one wall with three counters on it instead and take care of the masticore during my turn before he can untap. I eventually kill the baloth next turn and then he scoops.

-2 standstill, -2 stifle, +2 maze of ith, +2 fire/ice

I know he has river boas in his deck which is why I boarded in the fire/ice.

GAME_2: He plays forest, sol ring, cursed scroll. I have a null rod in hand so I am not concerned about either. Next turn he plays a boa which I force and then he play land grant revealing tangle wire, nevinyrral's disk, and tormod's crypt. I get a monkey in play, he casts tangle wire which I let resolve. I use my monkey to eat his scroll and then his sol ring the next turn. He has no gas and I do. He loses.

4-3

I finish with a very disappointing record of 4-3. I feel that I should have won round 1 against the mono-U deck, and thus, would have not been paired up against that anti-fish deck w/ maindeck river boa, suq'ata firewalker, hidden herd. However, that is another fate. The maindeck crucible was awsome. Everytime I cast it, I won. I seriously hope that it gets restricted soon. It seems too good to me.

C&J's managed to get three of the top-8 seeds as well as a fourth finishing in 9th place (I know how that feels   ).

Domino, TheLegendofMagic, and Zhalfirin made it to top-8. Unfortunately, Zhalfirin, playing mono-U, was defeated in the quarterfinals and was sent home with 6 draft sets. Domino, playing crucible stax, placed third, winning the mox pearl. TheLegendofMagic, playing 4 color control, placed first, winning the NM unlim lotus.


On Sunday, I played 7 games with Mikeatog while Andy Stok watched their dealer booth. I was playing the same fish deck and Mike was playing a welder-based U/r/b artifact combo control deck with welders, thirsts, force of wills, brainstorms, 5 strips, some tutors, some silver bullets, tinker and darksteel colossus. We discussed what his deck should be called but couldn't decide on a name. As said prior, we played 7 unboarded games. He won the first three and I won the last four. Null rod was one of the defining cards in the matchup because, when it is in play, daze and spiketail become SO much better. Crucible was a huge factor in one of the games also. None of the games were won because of poor opening hands / muligans.

PROPS:
1. My friend, TheLegendofMagic, for representing and winning the vintage tournament held at world's 2004.
2. Jeff, owner of C&J's, for putting up such delicious prize support for the top-4.
3. Domino, for letting me crash at his house all week.
4. Richard Garfield, for signing the rest of my power.
5. The SoCal crew for making it up here finally to the bay area. Maybe next time, we wont have to hold worlds here for you to come   .
6. The artists: Chris Rush, Daren Bader, Anthony Waters, Scott Fischer, for putting up with long lines of people waiting unthankfully to get their cards signed and playmats drawn on.
7. Scott Fischer for being so god damned cool to talk with.

SLOPS:
1. The sun, for making it too god damned hot.
2. The person/people who stole Random-Miser's power collection, for being lame.
3. Random-Miser, for not thinking before carrying an alledged $40,000 worth of power to an event with over 1,000 people in the building at all times.
4. Whoever approved the seats which were used in the tournament area, for not sitting in them for 30 minutes to figure out how uncomfortable they are.
5. The judge who wouldn't let TracerBullet get the decklists for the T1 tournament after it was over.
6. The judge who threw out the decklists for the T1 tournament before I could look at them for a deck tally.
7. People who value beta sinkholes at $45.00


Web

[UnstableCornbread]

Here is the basic break down of decks present:

15 Fish
7 TnT
6 Stax
6 Drain Slaver
5 4CC
5 MonoU
5 Affinity
4 Madness
2 Shop.dec
2 Storm Combo
2 Animal Farm
1 four color Tog

Random stuff..
4 Sui Back
3 Sligh
2 SlapJack
1 Gat
1 TeleTubbies
1 Drain Titan
1 Stompy

Top 8 consisited of 2 4CC, 2 MonoU, 1 Fish, 2 Stax, and Random Misers deck that looked like drain slaver but had 3-4 Iso Scepters.

[Smmenen]

TWO mono blue?  Who else beside Zhalfirin played mono blue?

[Fishhead]

I'm looking forward to this; I've heard there were some interesting matchups and lots of general shenannigans.  

Also, I know LegendOfMagic and RandomMizer have been banned, and for good reason.  However, if they should decide to report under an alias ("Dr. B2" ? or through a 3rd party,  I'd hope that the mods leave anything useful that they have to say intact.  This is a time that these players can give back a bit if they so choose and hopefully we can put aside past grievances for a while.  Remember, even the original Legend (& Negator) were allowed back for a bit when they started winning.

[Whatever Works]

The lists were lost??? Now thats just awful... You would think at a big event like this people would be capable of not losing some 90ish decklists... I was really curious to see the stax lists purely because I havent seen a new list that I have liked sinse Kevin Chrons T8 list at Gencon. Hopfully the lists are found or perhaps we will see more then 1 tournement report (the # gencon realistically produced).

[Jacob Orlove]

Remember, even the original Legend (& Negator) were allowed back for a bit when they started winning.

Actually, they were allowed back when the moderation changed from Rakso to Zherbus & Co. It had nothing to do with their tournament performance.

[Webster]

The lists were lost??? Now thats just awful... You would think at a big event like this people would be capable of not losing some 90ish decklists... I was really curious to see the stax lists purely because I havent seen a new list that I have liked sinse Kevin Chrons T8 list at Gencon. Hopfully the lists are found or perhaps we will see more then 1 tournement report (the # gencon realistically produced).

The lists were not lost, they were thrown into the garbage.


Web

[Zherbus]

Actually, they were allowed back when the moderation changed from Rakso to Zherbus & Co. It had nothing to do with their tournament performance.

...and they were winning up and down when they were banned from BDominia. If anything, they were doing worse when they came 'back'. These two winning is exactly the kind of I-told-you-so (since Miser has been trying to prove himself for the last 4 years and Legend of Magic has been trying to prove himself since the 'first PTQ') that I'd rather just avoid. I'm sure the type 1 community will survive without the first hand braggery and exaggeration these two would provide.

[Fishhead]

Actually, they were allowed back when the moderation changed from Rakso to Zherbus & Co. It had nothing to do with their tournament performance.

I am talking about Beyond Dominia, not TMD.  (Am I misremembering?  It was all so long ago...)  

Anyway, my request for judicious moderation stands; the winner of a big tournament usually gets a (coherent!) report and a bit of swagger.  I don't know if either of those players wants to report on TMD, but if they do, I'd like to hear what they have to say.  (I realize that other people with mod power may not agree with me, but I am pre-emptively putting my opinion out there; I wouldn't like to see a reasonable report deleted/distorted by a mod with a grudge.)

--edit --

Z posted while I was posting.  Obviously he disagrees with me.    Anyway, I am not asking for them to be allowed back; I agree that original Legend quickly returned to his old ways after being reinstated.

[UnstableCornbread]

Off my original post I left out the 1  four color Tog and TWO slapjack decks present (they are breeding).

All I can say concerning the other MonoU in the top eight is that his name is Shawn, he ran Annuls, and that he was crushed in the quarterfinals after resolvng Energy Flux vs Stax. Wish I could tell you more Smmenen.

[TracerBullet]

Basically, the TO wouldn't allow me to get the decklists Saturday night immidiately after the tournement, and by Sunday, apparently they were gone.  My list was-

KeeperBob.dec

4 Brainstorm
4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
3 Skeletal Scrying
2 Cunning Wish
1 Mox Monkey
3 Exalted Angel
1 Decree of Justice
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Yawgmoth's Will
3 Swords to Plowshares
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Balance
1 Mind Twist
1 Fact or Fiction

5 Strip Mines
4 Tundra
3 Volcanic Island
3 Underground Sea
1 City of Ass
6 SoLoMoxen (-Emerald)
4 Polluted Delta
1 Island
1 Library of Alexandrea

SB-
3 Red Elemental Blast
1 Blue Elemental Blast
2 Crucible of Worlds
1 Skeletal Scrying
1 Starstorm
1 Fire/Ice
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Coffin Purge
1 Disenchant
2 Rack and Ruin
1 Stifle

I ended up taking 4th, losing to Keeper and Stax in the Top8.  Both times they were just slight outdraws.  Additionally, I'm starting to get the feeling that Keeper is becoming an autoplay deck- it almost plays itself at this point.  Once you learn the nuances, it's to the point where it's just draw, counter threat, deal with threat, play Angel, win.

All told, I was quite happy with having the 4 Tundras and 1 Island.  I wish there were a way I could fit the Crucibles into the main, and also another Shaman.  FoF might be cut by the next time I play, as it didn't really feel powerful enough to warrant the 4cc slot.  Most of the time when I saw it, I wished it were Skeletal Scrying, though I'd be wary of having 4 Scryings in the main.

All told, it was a wonderful tournement, having a larger percentage of international origin than GenCon, by my count.  I would have guessed at least one third of the field was from outside the United States.

[AngryPheldagrif]

TWO slajack decks present (they are breeding).

Just wait 'till SCG: Chicago. [/inside tip]

This post never existed.

-Dan

[TracerBullet]

And on the Roy Spires/Legend of Magic thing-


At least Roy Spires isn't annoying in person (outside of absolutely hilarious physical ticks).  Playing Brian Woo is just something to be avoided at all costs... His every mannerism is quite justifiably reason for homicide.


There's something almost admirable about Roy Spires, in that he actually believes in what he says.  He's just completely and totally retarded.  I think Brian Woo is an ass for the sake of being an ass, which bugs me to no end.

Of course, all of this could just be because I lost to Brian and not Roy Spires.  Only time will tell.

[LotusHead]

My deck is SlapJack: An Auriok Salvagers Combo/Control deck by LotusHead.

Other Salvager decks are Salvager decks.  Unless you all really like the name!  Most people remember the whole SlapJack thing if I combo out on them.  Unfortunately, I scrubbed out.  When my computer is feeling better (don't ask), I'll cut and paste my Tourney Report into this post. Till then, check out the Salvagers thread in Vintage Newbie

In person, Brian Wu (Dr. B/TheLegendOfMagic) is an extremely polite player. I would be glad to post his report if Dr. B2 doesn't make an appearence.

Fuck the judges for throwing out the decklists.  They promised they would be up on Wizards, and they ain't.  They don't care.

Lastly, I have been researching Random-Miser's deck on his local site, and though I didn't find anything current, he has been working on this baby for a long time.  

It is called Invincible Counter Troll (Historically, it had Nivenryal's Disk and Sedge Trolls, with counterspells) and is a BRU Scepter Deck with Artifact Monsters (Memnarch, Pentavus, Mindslaver, Mishra's Factories) and Welders in it.  I played against it (piloted by his friend) as Roy was waiting for the Final Matchup, and his deck Stomped me.

I'm trying to get his decklist, and will post it if he doesn't mind, but he has to drive back to Texas to get my email.


EDIT: My computer is feeling better, so here is the SlapJack Tourney Report!

SlapJack: An Auriok Salvagers Combo/Control deck by LotusHead

Mana Base
4 Tundra
3 Underground Sea
1 Volcanic Island
4 Flooded Strain
1 Island
1 Plains
7 SoLoMoxen
1 Mana Crypt
1 Lion'e Eye Diamond

Combo Critters:
4 Auriok Salvagers
3 Trinket Mage (we miss you #4!)

Solutions Dept:
1 Tinker
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Aether Spellbomb
1 Pyrite Spellbomb
1 Darksteel Colossus
1 Seal of Cleansing
1 Sacred Ground

Draw/Search/Party:
4 Accumulated Knowledge
2 Intuition
3 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall (borrowed. Was Brainstorm #4)
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
2 Cunning Wish
1 Timetwister (I'm stubborn like that.)

Counters:
4 Force of Will
2 Mana Drain

Sideboard:
1 Intuition
1 Stifle
1 Brain Freeze
1 Shallow Grave
1 Ebony Charm
1 AEther Spellbomb (No Dragon, No Tog today... )
1 Disenchant
1 Echoing Truth
1 Fire/Ice
1 Rebuild
1 Entomb
1 Blue Elemental Blast
1 Ertai's Meddling
1 Misdirection
1 Tempest of Light

San Francisco: Worlds T1 Side Event: 47 Tables, 94 Players (I believe). Wow!

Round 1: I get paired with Andrew, who says "I'll be back", and then doesn't come back!!! I waste 10-20 test draws into awesomeness on an opponent who isn't there! That SUCKS. But, with a match "win", I'm in it for the Lotus. I'll accept this.

Round 2: Thomas Gimmel (who eventually top 8'd).

Game 1: He goes first playing Polluted Delta. I keep a hand with Volcanic, 2 Moxes and some juicy spells. I lay Volcanic, and hold back on the moxes. He wastes it and busts out with Lavamancers, Factories, Null Rods and all the other goodies. The only good thing is, going into game 2, he does not know what I am playing.
Game 2: I suck against Fish, ok?
Game 3: For fun. I still suck against Fish, ok?

Round 3: Frank! I haven't played against Frank since I built this deck. He lurks on The Mana Drain, but does not post, so knows exactly what my deck is.

Game 1: I cast TimeTwister after his Waste/Crucible lock starts to include Strip Mine. Unfortunately, he gets a Trisk with his new hand and does this: Ping Salvagers twice, ping it self once, Weld in dead Trisk, ping Salvagers two more times. I would have comboed off next turn, but such is life.

Game 2: Trinket Beats for the win! Neither of us combo off, but my Trinket Mages are bigger than his mana and Welders.

Game 3: We both make amazingly bad plays. Mine was due to inexperience against way good Top decks. Eventually, time is called, and I somehow hold off against his lock components with an explosive (but non-game winning) start. Two Salvagers on the field, with many land and moxen, facing an active Welder and Tangle Wire/Smokestacks. Frank gets Turn 1. He does stuff, I do stuff, and on Frank's Turn 5, I am at 9 Life with a bunch of tapped permanents. He attacks with his fully loaded Triskellion for 4, leaving me at 5 life. He thinks about the situation for a bit, then says..."Go". Draw game 3? He had me beat! All he had to do was what he did game 1 to kill my Salvagers. Ping me twice, Ping itself once, weld it back in, ping ping ping and I'm Dead. Anyways, a Lotus is on the line and I've made worse play errors.

Round 4: Ryan Playing Fish.
Game 1: I Tinker out a Colossus, with counter backup, extra daze mana, etc. He dies 2 turns later. Yay Me!

Game 2: Null rod stops me cold.

Game 3: He mulls to 5, even though his first 7 were great, and his next six were great. His last 5 had Null Rod. He let me in on that tactic after the match slips were complete. Bastard! I mean, good play, sir. Are you listening U/G Madness people? Mull till you get a Null Rod against SlapJack.

Round 5: Peter, playing something without Null Rods or Force of Will.

He loses 2 out of three games. His deck was a Survival/Mask/Naught deck.

Round 6: Jason playing Keeper.

His deck is completely pimped out, as he has been playing forever. I mulled to 5 to see my first land, Tolarian Academy with no moxen.

Peter is hella cool, and knew an old opponent of mine from back in the day: Kamikazi Kelly. Old times (sniff.) Peter casts 7 Brainstorms game 2. Way cool.

So far, out of 6 matchups, SlapJack faced 2 Fish and 1 4CC, my worst matchups (although, I feel I can fight the good fight against keeper).

Round 7: ANOTHER FRIKKIN NO SHOW!!!

Final Standings, 3-3-1, with 2 wins due to no shows. How lame.

My build went through several changes in the last 2 weeks, which I did not really make public until now, and I'm still a little unhappy with them.

On the Plus Side, I met a lot of TMD'rs, including Robert the Swordsman, Dave Hernandez, Tracerbullet, and many others. Also, I got to see those cool 3d Magic cards by that Asian artist dude. I'm trying out his techniques on some spare Chimney Imps as we speak! Lastly, the top 8 matchups were truly amazing to watch. Christian piloting Smemmen's Monoblue versus Random-Miser's Invincible Counter Troll was crazy. (This is where the real drama was, although I won't spill the beans in the open Needless to say, I watched the Random-Miser's side of all the following matches to see was happened. TheLegendOfMagic disrupted all the key resorces of Random-Miser's mana base and TheLegendOfMagic is known for some insane TopDecking skills (well, 4cc DOES have a lot of great cards in there, you know?)

As the final matchup wound down, it is 4:30 AM and the great hall is filled with only Vintage Players who just HAVE TO KNOW...Who will be left?

Anyways, I have a ton of great pictures of the Top 8,4,2 matchups on my digital camera, but have no idea how to post them here. (I don't know about URL's or whatnot.) If anyone who DOES know how to post pictures, PM me your non-TMD email address and I will send you whatever came out).


Props to Annie for fronting me some cash to make it to the event
Props to Kevin for sporting me a few bucks so I could enter the event
Props to some random guy outside for buying some cards off me so I could get home.

Slops SlapJack for getting 3 horrible matchups in my 5 games, and for sucking so bad against them. I will figure this Fish Thing out.

End Edit

[DavidHernandez]

Cornbread:
I'm not sure how you listed my deck. I was actually running a modified version of Thorme's Stacker.

Bob.Stacker.Dec
Dave Hernandez
18th Place. 4-2-1.

4 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Tinker
1 Mystical Tutor

4 Goblin Welder
3 VIASHINO HERETIC
1 Wheel of Fortune

1 Memory Jar

4 Juggernaut
1 Sundering Titan
1 Triskelion
1 Duplicant

3 Trinisphere
3 Crucible of Worlds

2 Fire/Ice

4 Mishra's Workshop
1 Tolarian Academy
4 Wasteland
3 Shivan Reef
4 Volcanic Island
2 Polluted Delta
1 Strip Mine

1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Emerald
1 Black Lotus (double signed and customized by Rush!)
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Sol Ring

Sideboard:
3 Red Elemental Blast
3 Blood Moon (sideboard MVP)
1 Pentavus (waste of a slot)
2 Blue Elemental Blast (wished they were something else)
3 Rack and Ruin
3 Chalice of the Void

Duplicant was a house. I'd like to run two of them maindeck. Trinisphere's were amazing (of course), even as a 3-of, but I'd like a 4th.

Viashino Heretic was MVP. Under Trinisphere he cost the same as a Gorilla Shaman, but he really put the pressure on. My play of the night:

3rd game vs. 4cc piloted by CF (Christian Flaaten, a VERY cool guy btw), I'm going first. I drop Mox Jet and Black Lotus, trying to make it look like I kept a no-land-hand and draw his counterspell, but he doesn't bite.  I break Lotus and drop Viashino Heretic.  I drop Workshop --> Trinisphere, which resolves!  Apparently he kept a hand with a counter other than Force, Land, Mox, and a lot of Draw.

Before he gets to 3 mana, I am able to drop a Ruby (using Workshop) along with a Volcanic Island, followed by Blood Moon. Over the next 2 turns I end up holding 2 Red Elemental  Blasts.

19 turns after we start, he's at 2. The only creature on the board is the Heretic I started with. He has a lonely basic island and a bunch of non basic mountains. He drops a sol ring and attempts to brainstorm, hoping to get Cunning Wish and BEB or Swords to Plowshares (he may have had a Pearl in hand).

I REB the Brainstorm. He Forces. I REB the Force. He goes to one. I swing on my turn and he dies. Had the Brainstorm gone through, he would have had what he needed to remove the Blood Moon and the Heretic, and would have come back with his big fat flying machine.

Viashino's were amazing all night. They put a stop to everything from Factories to Smokestacks and opposing artifact creatures. I liked them over Shaman (of which i like to run 3 in my Titan decks). They're a little slow due to summoning sickness, but the ability to blow up the big artifacts that we see now was well worth the extra turn. Shaman can't compare in a deck that runs 4 shops and requires 3 mana to eat a simple sol ring.

Duplicant was also amazing, especially with active Welder.  I was always happy to see it and never had trouble casting it.

I lost to Bazaar Madness (G/R/u) and to TnT. I drew vs. UR Counter Burn. I had board position but we ran out of turns. I should have gone 5-2. Oh well.

So Cal made a good showing. It was an awesome tournament and the guys up north are awesome. Thanks to everyone for a fantastic time.

Dave.

[Robert the Swordsman]

The event was awesome.

Good things: I got my Jet, Pearl, Beta Demonic, and Spanish BB Balance (which was already signed by Poole) signed by Richard Garfield in gold ink. Also, I got my beat-up Lotus first signed by Christopher Rush in silver ink, and he drew a bunch of rays coming off the flower (Pat saw it and called it "sumo powah!"). The Lotus was then signed by Mr. Garfield in gold. It looks awesome. Also, I met CF (Christian Flaaten), who is not only great, but incidentally was the guy who sent me some awesome stuff for the "TMD Secret Santa" thing that happened. It's great that we actually got ot meet.

Bad things: While the signing / playing / meeting people was enjoyable, the experience was actually a bit unpleasant for me. The night before, I got 2.5 hours of sleep and it was really, really hot the entire time. By 7:00 PM, I felt awful.

Enough negativity. I did have a good time, looking back on it.

Here's what I played. It's a modification of what I top-eighted with in Maine.

(I bet it was filed under "Suicide Black". Argh.)

Flying Tank
4 Exalted Angel
4 Juggernaut

4 Duress
3 Chains of Mephistopheles
1 Mind Twist

4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Nevinyrral's Disk
2 Vindicate
1 Balance

4 Night's Whisper
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will

5 Strip / Wastes
4 Flooded Strand
4 Scrubland
3 Plains
3 Swamp
3 Ancient Tomb
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Jet
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt

SB
4 Dust to Dust
4 Disenchant
3 Planar Void
2 Rule of Law
1 Nevinyrral's Disk
1 Sword of Fire and Ice (This is the best card of all time.)

I ended up losing round against one due to an unfortunate occurrence (the guy played a Chalice for zero turn one, a few turns later I played a face-down Angel and won with it, after the game we realized it and I took the loss. A judge probably would have given us a warning and let me keep the win, but I didn't want to win like that). Game two, I didn't SB at all (I'm used to playing a much different, much worse SB that has a lot of answers for random-aggro) and lost with two dead Chains in my hand.
0-1

Round two, I played against GAT. He won game one fair and square, I won game two fair and square (Chains are a new addition for me and are SO good, exactly the card I needed), but game three he went first and opened with Lotus, Mox, Mox, Mox, Dryad. I play a land and pass the turn, he Mysticals in my end step for Ancestral. Next turn, he casts Psychatog and shows me a castable Drain and an active Force. Oh well, these things happen.
0-2

Round three, I forget who / what I played, but I remember it was a decent deck and I ended up winning 2-1.
1-2

At this point, I was almost definitely out of the running, but I wanted to keep going until I ran in to that third loss, just in case.

Round four I played against a guy who tried to sacrifice his Lion's Eye Diamond to cast Timetwister in his Howling Mine / Underworld Dreams / Burn deck. He wasn't a very nice guy. In any case, I took it 2-1 (I lost a game because I was a bit out of it and dropped a Mana Crypt on turn one for the sake of casting it).
2-2

Round five I played against a cool guy who was playing Fish. Playing Chains and then, later, breaking their Standstills is cool, though. Interestingly, this was the only match I won 2-0. I didn't expect that.
3-2.

Round six, I play against Sligh. I lose 0-2 promptly. It was fast, indeed.
3-3.

At that point, I dropped. The deck didn't do too bad, and Chains look pretty promising. Thanks to JACO for letting me borrow his cool ones. I'll have to look in to getting some as soon as I can. I met Lotushead, and he was actually pretty cool.

The sideboard isn't very good and I didn't get to really use it all day. To be honest, I was low on cash and ideas, so the quickest thing that came to mind was to just make a few cards four-ofs and give it a shot.

Props:
JACO (Jason), Tracer Bullet (Pat), David Hernandez (duh), Akuma (Gio), Joe, and Nick for being cool. Thanks a ton.
CF for being cool.
Lotushead for being cool.
Mr. Garfield and Mr. Rush for being good people who are friendly and easy to talk to.
The deck I played for not doing awfully awful.

Slops:
Heat. Heat is way too hot.
Sleep. Dude, where were you?
Myself for most-likely leaving out many important / neat things that happen. I apologize profusely to anyone who I'm not mentioning.

Thank you very much.

EDIT: Edited a gajillion times 'cuz I can't think of a cool name for the dumb deck.

[xyphus]

Hey, I just signed up for an account here and thought I'd post my decklist and a mini-report for what I saw of this tournament.  I was one of apparently 5 affinity decks--I took the deck expecting to have some fun but not be too competitive, and I was quite happy with my 4-3 finish.  I actually saw 3 mirror matches, which I'll discuss in a minute.  First of all, here's my decklist:

"Affinidraw"
Mana base (23):
4 Glimmervoid
3 Seat of the Synod
3 Vault of Whispers
2 Underground Sea
1 Volcanic Island
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Mana Vault
1 Mana Crypt
7 SoLoMoxen

Creatures (15):
4 Arcbound Ravager
3 Disciple of the Vault
3 Frogmite
3 Arcbound Worker
2 Myr Enforcer

Draw engine (17):
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Timetwister
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Memory Jar
4 Thoughtcast
2 Thirst for Knowledge
4 Skullclamp
3 Genesis Chamber

Other brokenness (5):
1 Time Walk
1 Tinker
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will

SB (15):
3 Rack and Ruin
3 Red Elemental Blast
1 Blue Elemental Blast
2 Fire/Ice
4 Blood Moon
2 Stifle

As I was tuning the deck towards this build, I realized that it really worked more like a combo deck than aggro: in a good game the deck should "go off" and I should be drawing through most of the deck in one turn (plus Time Walk turns!) to power a Ravager-Disciple kill.  The skullclamps and genesis chambers are the real key here, and all the draw spells fill in the cracks.  After playing in the tournament, I think I might take out the Myr Enforcers for a full set of 4 Frogmites and 4 Workers (or 4 Disciples), and since the Tinker's only real purpose is to resolve Memory Jar, I could probably replace those two cards with one Windfall at only a slight loss of effectiveness in exchange for another slot.  Also, Rack and Ruin is NOT the right answer to Null Rod--I wish I had included 3 Shatter or Shattering Pulse in the sideboard.

In the tournament this deck won handily against one Fish deck (to be fair, he was inexperienced and got bad draws, and I had the best draw I saw all tournament), lost to a "Where's the Fish?" variant, lost to Mono-Blue control, won against Grow/Tog, won against an Affinity deck not too different from type 2 Affinity, and traded matches against two Ironworks-Affinity decks.  I didn't see any Stax or other Workshop decks (other than the Ironworks-Affinity decks running Workshops).

Like combo decks, I found that if I could play more or less unobstructed, I would "go off" turn 2-4 and get the win; two of my losses were due mainly to well-aimed counterspells plus Null Rod in one case and Energy Flux in the other, and one Ironworks-Affinity deck just went off faster than me two games in a row.

So, for the sake of those who are interested in Affinity as a type 1 archetype (I saw a couple of older threads on it...), here's my analysis of how the builds I saw stacked up against each other:

One of my mirror matches seemed to be basically type 2 affinity plus power.  He won one game resolving two early Myr Enforcers and beating with them before I could go off, but the two games where I got decent draws I had no trouble going through my deck to find my kill.  From my perspective, Affinity as a combo-ish archetype seems much more powerful than trying to go aggro with it.

The two Ironworks-Affinity decks I saw were very similar to mine.  The builds seemed pretty close except for a few key differences: they ran Workshops and Krark-Clan Ironworks for a higher-powered mana base than mine (if I had managed to get my hands on some Workshops before the tournament, I would have tried them out...), and they killed with Ravager + Triskelion rather than Ravager + Disciple(s).  The main draw engine of Genesis Chamber + Skullclamp + supporting spells was pretty similar.  In these matchups, it pretty much came down to which deck could resolve a Yawgmoth's Will, Time Walk, or draw-7 first (usually turn 2-3).  I think the Ironworks worked very effectively and I plan to play around with them in my deck, but I still have more confidence in Disciple for the win over Trike.  The main reason is that each point of life loss is its own event (and each artifact is worth one point of Ravager attack damage plus one point for each Disciple I have), whereas the Ravager + Triskelion can be totally countered with a well-placed Stifle (on the Modular counter transfer, of course!).

So...I hope this writeup was interesting for the crowd here.  I'd be very interested in hearing more thoughts about Affinity as a type 1 archetype...it seems to me that it has decent potential, but I'll admit it's still a bit fragile in the face of disruption (Null Rod, Energy Flux, or a few counterspells can be very harsh, though land/hand disruption isn't as much of a problem).  Suggestions on how to improve its robustness would be appreciated.

P.S.  It amused me very much that my opponents started Mana Draining and Forcing my Frogmites and Arcbound Workers...and those definitely were the right plays at the time!

P.P.S. Grazie to a friendly and experienced Italian named Lucio who helped me tune the final decklist.

[TheIneffable]

Final Standings for Top 8

1. 4cc (TheLegendOfMagic)
2. Drain Slaver w/ Stick Jank (Random-Miser)
3. Stax (Luis Scott-Vargas)
4. 4cc (TracerBullet)
5-8th. Stax (Kenny Olberg)
5-8th. Mono Blue (Zhalfirin)
5-8th. Fish (Thomas Gimmel)
5-8th. Mono Blue (Shawn)

Interesting notes:

1. Sui Black era 1993 made a showing in hard sleeves, Drudge Skeletons with Holy Strength are the beats with Sengir for the win!

2. While scouting the decks I saw something I believed to be RG Beats, looking at game 2 he went Port, Sol Ring, Lotus Petal, Time Walk... What the F@&%?!

3. In the quarterfinals TheLegendOfMagic completely pissed off Kenny Olberg to no end when Legend came back from 1 life and topdecked several turns in a row to finally win the game.

4. Legend has been immortalized in a picture at Worlds, something I hope Zhalfirin will post so you can all see him side by side with the card Gus, from Unglued.

5. Two bumbling idiots were arguing over Scepter + Trinisphere. One said it cost 2, the other said it cost 3. The Judge came and told em it was 5.

Anyways the field was quite diverse with players from many countries and there was a lot of power, even though I didn't always think it was put to best use. One of my friends put it best after seeing note #5: "Even though at C&J's we think of Legend as an awful player who can't stack several Mem Jars right, there are people that are so much worse."

[SpikeyMikey]

Well, I showed up unpowered, with a PoS deck, so I met my low expectations easily.  I would like to give props to the guy from Oslo I played in the 3rd round running Stax, very cool guy, lot of fun to talk to.  Nick needs a severe beating for scaring the everloving shit out of Pat when he disappeared with the van for what must have been a good 23 hours.  Also props to Dave's wife, who provided me with lots of good conversation after I dropped going into the 6th round.  All in all, I had a good time in San Fran, spent some time on Haight, got to stare at Alcatraz while I was out smoking, and played a major T1 sanctioned tournament for the first time in some 2 and a half years, even if I had to play with some random junk I could scrape together.  I would like to point out that Holy Light is the mad tech against Fish.  

[JACO]

Off my original post I left out the 1  four color Tog and TWO slapjack decks present (they are breeding).

All I can say concerning the other MonoU in the top eight is that his name is Shawn, he ran Annuls, and that he was crushed in the quarterfinals after resolvng Energy Flux vs Stax. Wish I could tell you more Smmenen.

The other mono-blue deck in the Top 8 was piloted by Sean McBee (from Oregon, if I recally correctly), and was NOT Smmenen's mono-blue. He was rocking Annuls and Nev's Disk main, and had 3-4 Energy Fluxes in his board, and played well when I played against him, and when I saw him playing others. In game 3 of our match, I went first and hard cast a FIRST TURN PENTAVUS (Workshop, Sol Ring, Lotus), and it would have went all the way for the match win had I drawn another mana source in the next 4 turns (note: Energy Flux is amazing, and owned me here).

The tournament was fun, but the best part was meeting Richard Garfield and the artists, and getting an assload of cards signed and altered.

[Dnine]

First before I start a big thanks to Unstablecornbread and KiLO for loaning me some cards to play in the first place.  I normally borrow Unstables 4cc deck sense I am new to Type one, but with that not being available, I fell back to my type 2 roots and powered up my Affinity deck.  Going in my expectations were fairly low as it is not considered one of the top decks, but I was comfortable with it and wanted to give it a try.

Here is the deck list:

Mana base: (22)
4  mox pearl, ruby, sapphire, and Jet
4 underground sea
3 polluted Delta
1 volcanic Island
2 vault of whispers
2 seat of the synod
1 island
1 sol ring
1 lotus petal
1 tolarian Academy
1 mana crypt
1 mana Vault

Creatures (17)
4 frogmites
2 Myr enforcer
3 disciple of the vault
4 myr servitor
4 arcbound Ravager

Other
3 Genesis Chamber
4 Skullclamp
4 thoughtcast
4 force of will
2 mana drain
1 demonic tutor
1 vampiric tutor
1 time walk
1 timetwister

Sideboard
3 tormod's Crypt
2 rack and ruin
2 shattering pulse
3 hydroblast
4 pyroblast
1 volcanic Island

I started off 3-0 through the first three round beating a combo belcher deck round one 2-1.  He was one of the worlds players, but had never played type one before and was using a borrowed deck.  He didn't seem to happy to have to play agianst affinity as that's all he saw all weekend in the worlds tournament.  I remember him mulling alot, but he did take game 2 with an early belcher for 40.  

Round 2 I faced 4cc and won 2-0.  Game one involved an early genesis chamber and skullclamp eventually drawing me into a disciple and a win.  Game 2 was straight beetdown as chamber, servitor, frogmite and their myr token buddies came out turn one.  his life went 20-15-6-gg.
 
I'm missing one of my notes pages, but I do remember I played fish round three.  I believe I won 2-0, but not positive.  Either way I was starting to feel pretty good about my chances and my deck.  Round 4 dealt me a little surprise I was not expecting as I was paired agianst another 3-0 affinity deck.  Not something I was expecting.  Game one was fairly long as we both stalled out.  With each of us having a G. chamber and multiple clamps in play, the game came down to whoever played the next creature would win.  He tried to cast a ornathopter which I proceded to mana drain(worst mana drain ever) and buy another draw, but as I drew mana source after mana source I eventually lost to his frogmite draw.  Game two was a quick win for me as early disciple/clamp is pretty good.  Unfortunately on game three, a first turn frogmite/frogmite/worker for him was just as good as I get my first loss of the night.

Round 5 paired me agianst a mind's desire deck and a very slow player.  Game one was only 4 turns, but proceded to take over a half an hour.  Finally after all that he desires for 8 and I almost scoop, but decide to make him flip over the cards just to be sure.  He desires into 2 durresses, 2 moxes, 2 land, and nothing else.  Lucky me.   Game 2 I apply enough early pressure to make him stretch for his combo, he comes up one short as he trendrils me for 18 takimg me to 1 and him to 31.  Time has been called in the round and we go to turn on. The next turn I drop 3 disciples and start digging for a ravager.  I never fond it, but in the process take him down to 8.  He gets one last try as I pass the turn,  but he is out of gas and concedes to me.  I swear each game never lasted past turn 4, yet we almost didn't finish game 2.  Luckly I get out of it with a win instead of a draw and I'm one win away from top 8!

Round 6 paired me with fish agian.  I ended up drawing as both games were back and forth and ate up alot of time.  Alot of hate came in in this matchup and I'm sure I can thank stacks for that.   It was getting late so my memory is getting fussy on what exactly happened.  I do know that we were both making a fair amount of mistakes though.  At the end a draw is better then a loss as it still leaves me one win from the top eight.

The final round.  This is it, my chance for some more power is at hand.  Game one was quick and painless as I get a nice opening hand hand my opponant is mana screwed, up 1-0.  Game 2 is a different story as I keep a questionable hand and procede to get mana flooded with a lonely servitor as my only threat.  He finally drops a morphling and procedes to win.  Oh, guess I should mention I'm playing a mono blue control deck.  Game 3 starts and I draw another mana heavy hand with 5 mana sources and no threats, I decide this time to mull and draw my next 6, this time no land at all.  I can't believe it as I shuffle my deck agian and draw five.  I keep as I have no choice playing first, I can't go down to 4.  It had 1 land, a clamp, and a frogmite I could cast turn to so I have some hope.  That is until he plays wastland and I procede to draw 6 cards with no land.  Buy the time I scooped, he had completely cleared my board and was sitting on a full hand with an active library.  I was disappointed to say the least, but still a 4-2-1 finish with an untested, not fully powered, low tier deck in a major tournament like this makes me feel pretty good.

[raziel]

Just wanted to say it was great to finally match faces to names. Tracerbullet, Akuma, Robert the Swordsman.
SpikeyMikey and David I remembered from San Diego. Jaco you were playing when I got there. I'll catch you next time. What a bunch of great guys.
Hopefully Christiaan will post his thoughts on the event and top 8.

[AltronDragon]

I attended Worlds Friday and got in some random drafting/trading.  I returned to Worlds again on Saturday at 11:15 to sign up for the Legends/Chinese sealed but they ran out of spots.  Thus, I was stuck drafting/trading again until the real reason I attended Worlds....

I played this:
4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
3 Intuition
2 Fire/Ice
4 Goblin Welder
1 Platinum Angel
1 Mindslaver
2 Sundering Titan
4 Thirst for Knowledge
4 Accumulated Knowledge
4 Volcanic Island
3 Underground Sea
2 Island
4 Polluted Delta
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Library of Alexandria
7 SoLoMoxen
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Ancestral Reccall
1 Time Walk
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Tinker
1 Mystical Tutor

SB:
1 Pentavus
1 Triskelion
2 Tsabo's Web
1 Coffin Purge
2 Fire/Ice
1 Red Elemental Blast
2 Pyroblast
2 Rack and Ruin
2 Viashino Heretic
1 Shattering Pulse

Yea yea, no brainstorm makes baby Jesus cry or whatever.  I've always been an agnostic anyways.  In all seriousness, I've never liked brainstorm in this deck due to its raw drawing power from the ak/intuition engine and 4 TfK.  In there place, I maindecked mystical tutor which was SOOOOOOO good to me all day, 2 Fire/Ice to improve the fish matchup and having a maindeck solution to goblin welder can't hurt either, as well as Platinum Angel which was in theory my way of stealing games.


Round 1 Nick T playing TnT
Game 1
He wins the die roll and I believe goes workshop + mox -> Su-Chi.  I get an INSANE hand and go LoA -> draw -> jet -> lotus -> tinker.  I resolve my first turn sundering titan and he remarks that he's never seen a titan come in and not destroy anything.  Anyways, Su-chi doesn't race Titan very well.

Game 2
He goes turn 1 Workshop -> Sol ring -> Masticore.  I have no solution for the masticore and I just drop mana sources while his core beats me down to about 8.  I then topdeck DT -> shattering pulse.  I start buying back shattering pulse on his masticore during his upkeep after he discards.  For some reason, he keeps his regenerating (and tapping) masticore around for a couple of turns allowing me to eventually draw into bustedness for the win.  (After the round he said something about how he thought I was playing a different deck and thats why he wanted the core around but I still don't really get the logic)
1-0 (2-0)

Round 2 Jason Jaco (Jaco) playing TnT?
Game 1
We go back and forth for a while before I pseudo mindslaver lock him using up my 3-4 moxen to buy myself some turns.  Eventually I cast an intuition w/ an active welder which is enough for him to scoop it up.

Game 2
I keep a pretty good hand that only has a volcanic island and 2 moxen for mana.  He then plays a turn 1 heretic to my surprise.  I thought I was the only one that played heretics over lots of rack and ruins.  I think I play my volcanic and moxen and thirst for knowledge into no more mana sources.  He proceeds to go wasteland -> mox monkey and I never recover.

Game 3
I get a sundering titan into play that is beating on him.  He attempts to cast artifact mutation (!) on my titan and I rack and ruin my own titan and I believe one of his moxen in response.  This is enough to basically armageddon both of us.  At one point, he has to survival up a mox monkey to destroy his own mana crypt.  I perform one of the most pathetic wills ever since he is only at 4.  Will -> Land + Mox Emerald which activates my lone Tolarian Academy.  With my 3 mana I tinker into platinum angel and he doesn't have the solution.
2-0 (4-1)

Jaco was a really nice guy and while we are talking after the match, I point out TheLegendOfMagic to him.  Interestingly enough, TheLegendofMagic was actually carrying around a sign that said "TheLegendOfMagic" and putting it down before he played every match.  

Round 3 Bryce T Playing MonoBlue
Game 1
He resolves an early phid (Turn 1 or 2) AND has an active library.  Amazingly, I somehow resolve a tinker into a titan that is beating on him.  He then scoops up to an intuition w/ an active welder on the board.

Game 2
He AGAIN resolves a first turn ophidian and once again begins his massive card advantage trip.  I have an active library but it gets wastelanded and I get run over by card advantage.  At one point, I mistakenly cast Yawg Will while he is stuck at two lands.  He casts mana drain on the Yawg Will and I then proclaim that its sad that at this point I care less about the yawg will as opposed to the mana he will be gaining.  I mana drain his drain and he forces.  Lo and behold on his turn he drops morphling and starts going to town.  At one point out of sheer desperation, I tap out and hardcast Platinum Angel into his full hand.  My friend and I are debating whether its gonna be forced or drained and a laugh comes from the crowd watching our match when he mana leaks it instead.  

Game 3
We have 3 minutes before the round ends so I decide I have to kill him as quickly as possible.  I set up a hand that can actually kill that quickly but he counters my time walk and well, mono-blue doesn't exactly kill quickly.  We draw.
2-0-1 (5-2)

These were some very interesting games and there was a lot of friendly banter between us.  We attracted a decent crowd around us due to our antics.  It was definetely one of the most entertaining matches of T1 I've ever played.

Round 4 Shawn L playing Madness
Game 1
He goes for an early survival and I think I am playing TnT again.  It turns out he is playing madness but he doesn't kill me quickly enough and his wild mongrel + empty hand doesnt trump sundering titan.  Interestingly enough he cast 2(!) maindeck rack and ruins on me this game which almost forced me to roll over.  

Game 2
I go DT -> tinker -> titan.  He still has an active bazaar on the board though and he discards rack and ruin w/ enough mana to cast it.  I know I am in trouble and he proceeds to artifact mutation.  I mise my way through this one by hardcasting the last card in my hand FOW with exactly enough mana.
3-0-1 (7-2)

At this point, I am pretty excited because I only need to win 2 out of my 3 next rounds to get into the T8.  Of course, I shouldn't have started thinking that.

Round 5 Luis playing Stax (He T8'ed I believe)
Game 1
He plays a crucible turn 1 and starts wastelanding me away turn 2.  A titan makes me pack it up.

Game 2
He once again gets a turn 1 crucible and a turn 2 wasteland.  To make things even better he resolves a smokestack.  My 2 basic islands almost carried me through this game because I could maybe race with my platinum angel with time walk in hand.  His rack and ruin ensures that will not happen.
3-1-1 (7-4)

At this point, I get pretty dejected because I have to win out.

Round 6 Didn't Catch His Name playing TnT
Game 1
I force an early crucible and survival of the fittest.  We both have hands of little action left and he casts wheel of fortune.  I take that as a good opportunity to cast mystical tutor and my savage topdecking ( ) of tinker gets me a titan.  When my welder starts welding his Su-Chi for another Su-Chi on his attack steps, he scoops.

Game 2
My first 7 have no mana sources except for a tolarian academy.  I mull into a hand with no mana sources at all.  I mull again into a hand with no mana sources except academy again.  Worst Academy EVAR.  I mistakenly keep this hand and of course get run over with no permanents but an academy.

Game 3
He plays an early survival of the fittest, which I force.  He attempts a second survival which i contemplate.  I have another force in hand but I'd have to pitch my TfK that is my only non mana card.  Do I force this survival and go into topdeck mode or do I hope to draw into something good with my TfK?  I don't force the survival and he slowly starts to gain advantage from it.  He resolves a viashino heretic which causes me huge problems.  We fight over board position by the number of active welders we have.  Eventually I get trumped because well survival + anger >> randomly drawing welders.  I scoop it up as triskelion comes in and my moxen are being eliminated.
3-2-1 DROP (8-6)

I am REALLY disappointed at this point because of my awful draws game 2 and I made a few mistakes in the final game.  I'd really want to blame it on fatigue (it was about 1 and I had been there about 14 hours already) but I don't think I had any business winning that last game anyways.

My thoughts on the deck were it was pretty solid all day.  Mystical tutor was very, very good to me.   I don't think I would play this deck in a tournament anytime soon until I find a solution to viashino heretic.  He is a HUGE problem for this deck and 2 Fire/Ice isnt exactly efficiency.  

Props
My (mostly) cool opponents all day.
Wizards for actually deciding to add prize support to t16.

Slops
Freakin hot worlds.
Starting 7 round tourneys with cut to top 8 at 5 pm.
Tolarian Academy for being inactive for me ALL FREAKIN DAY.

[Magi]

Also, I met CF (Christian Flaaten), who is not only great, but incidentally was the guy who sent me some awesome stuff for the "TMD Secret Santa" thing that happened. It's great that we actually got ot meet.

This just further proves to me that we need to have another one of those things again this year

On a slightly worlds related note, the guy who came in second (Aeo Paquette)  is a regular at the store I go to. People who know him well call him the "Blackest White Person" they know.

I wish I could have gone.

[h9565]

With your indulgence, I'll inflict my 1-2 drop story upon you.  Against Zhalfirin's advice, I decide to pilot WTF/r.

Round 1: Joe Oginsky (Stax)
Joe's deck is quite pimped--all Asian foil and Beta power.  However, this matchup plays out exactly as in testing.  I get locked down in game 1, but sideboard into game 2 and 3 victories.
1-0

Round 2: Michael Torrisi (White Weenie w/ Blue splash)
Michael's deck is very anti-fish with Icatian Javelineers, Abolish, etc.  I have game 1 well in hand with a curious and a non-curious River Boa islandwalking all over his blue splash.  He proceeds to wreck me with Holy Light.  To appreciate the irony, you need to know that I collect Holy Light (mostly for the artwork) and have 52 in my binder, beneath my chair.  Game 2, I mulligan a poor hand into a questionable hand, which I mistakenly decide to keep.  I definitely need to work on my mulligan decisions.
1-1

Round 3: Hans Joachim Hoeh (Storm Combo)
Hans is a Pro player from Germany listed on the leader board for Player of the Year.  I haven’t tested against Storm combo because it is nearly absent from the local metagame (which mostly consists of various Workshop flavours and Fish).  I lose this match because of my lack of testing and zero relevant sideboard.
1-2

If there is a moral to this story it is this: practice, practice, practice.

[DavidHernandez]

2 4CC, 2 MonoU, 1 Fish, 2 Stax, and Random Misers deck that looked like drain slaver but had 3-4 Iso Scepters

I think this is a good indication of how resilient some of these decks are, given the fact that there were so few 4cc, MonoU, Stax, and Slaver.

Fish were everywhere. There were actually more than 15 Fish decks (Cornbread lists 73 decks, but there were 98). Yet only one Fish deck made top 8.

As for MonoU, this is a deck that I always look at as having Top-8 potential, but not enough 'umph' to actually win the whole thing.

For those interested, this is the 3rd time in 3 months that 4cc has taken first place (2x at Gems with 32 players and 24 players, and Worlds (with 98 players)).  My area (So. Cal) has ZERO type one going on, except for the tourney put on by TracerBullet every 6-weeks or so (for a Mox Jet each time).  To see a deck that typically has a showing of 5% of the attendees finish FIRST each time tells me that the deck (did I say "The Deck"??) is a beatstick and worthy of more consideration.

Note:

5. Two bumbling idiots were arguing over Scepter + Trinisphere. One said it cost 2, the other said it cost 3. The Judge came and told em it was 5.

I know you're new to the forum, but try not to post ignorant comments like this. The two 'idiots' were highly rated players who happened to disagree on how Trinisphere worked vs. Scepter. To complicate the issue, one of the players was Italian and there were some language issues involved too.  As it turns out, a lot of players didn't know, and an argument over it ensued. The judge was called over to settle it, and it turned out (to everyones surprise [except yours, apparently]) that the Scepter works in a way that those 2 players (and many others) were not aware of.  None of us can know everything, which is why we have judges.

One of my friends put it best after seeing note #5: "Even though at C&J's we think of Legend as an awful player who can't stack several Mem Jars right, there are people that are so much worse."

Clearly, your friend is not one of the top C&J's players. They have more class than to make comments that are as poorly thought out as yours and his.

--Dave.

[Zhalfirin]

I'll post my full report (with pictures) in a couple of days.  In summary, I piloted Smmenen-Blue to a 7-1-1 in the swiss (7th seed), but unfortunately lost to Roy Spires (Random Miser) in the quarters.

Overall, I thought the field (decks & players) was great.  IMO, the top8 decks were very solid and deserving of their placement.  It is too bad that the lists were lost, because there were some interesting card choices.

More later ...

[TheIneffable]

Sorry about that Hernandez, some of this stuff seems kind of obvious to me and others that I know well. I will be sure to let up next time, though it stings me when good players as well as even high level judges make quite wrong calls in tournaments. Just FYI, I'm the guy with the contacts.

Cornbread listed all the decks he felt were relevant, he left off such things as White Weenie, etc, which is why only 73 of the 98 decks are accounted for. He also happens to be missing a 3 color Tog deck from the stats I remember. But looking over his and my figures while scouting, we had acounted for 15 fish decks with about 6 decks unnacounted in the end. We assumed 2 of these matches to be Storm combo with opponents' decks unknown.

Playing Brian Woo is just something to be avoided at all costs... His every mannerism is quite justifiably reason for homicide.

And you don't have to deal with him every week...  

[SpikeyMikey]

With your indulgence, I'll inflict my 1-2 drop story upon you.  Against Zhalfirin's advice, I decide to pilot WTF/r.

Round 1: Joe Oginsky (Stax)
Joe's deck is quite pimped--all Asian foil and Beta power.  However, this matchup plays out exactly as in testing.  I get locked down in game 1, but sideboard into game 2 and 3 victories.
1-0

Round 2: Michael Torrisi (White Weenie w/ Blue splash)
Michael's deck is very anti-fish with Icatian Javelineers, Abolish, etc.  I have game 1 well in hand with a curious and a non-curious River Boa islandwalking all over his blue splash.  He proceeds to wreck me with Holy Light.  To appreciate the irony, you need to know that I collect Holy Light (mostly for the artwork) and have 52 in my binder, beneath my chair.  Game 2, I mulligan a poor hand into a questionable hand, which I mistakenly decide to keep.  I definitely need to work on my mulligan decisions.
1-1

Round 3: Hans Joachim Hoeh (Storm Combo)
Hans is a Pro player from Germany listed on the leader board for Player of the Year.  I haven’t tested against Storm combo because it is nearly absent from the local metagame (which mostly consists of various Workshop flavours and Fish).  I lose this match because of my lack of testing and zero relevant sideboard.
1-2

If there is a moral to this story it is this: practice, practice, practice.

Adam, right?  Sorry about that second round.  Had I known I was going to lose to Stax and Fish respectively in the next 2 rounds, I'd have just given it to you, since my deck wasn't very good to begin with.  60 cards of Stax and Fish hate ya know

[DavidHernandez]

Just FYI, I'm the guy with the contacts.

Oh! I know you!  Sorry if I came across as harsh, but there was a lot to that particular story, and it cost someone a match win (the argument took it to time, which in turn resulted in a 1-1-1 for games with the non-scepter player in control of the board).

The contacts were cool.

Dave.