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everythingitouchdies
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« on: September 13, 2004, 12:28:52 pm » |
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Type 1 Tournament
12 Proxy Unsanctioned
September 12th
The Card’s Edge in Windsor, ON
Prizes:
1st: Unlimited Time Walk
2nd: 4 Force of Will
3rd: Moat (Italian???)
Their New Owners:
1st: Ben (Everythingitouchdies) American Playing Worldgorger
2nd: Jeremy (Store Affiliate) Canadian Playing 4cc
3rd: Brian (???) American Playing Stax
The Basic Info:
The turn out for this fairly unadvertised tournament landed at about 24 (sorry if I am off by a few, but the consensus in the car on the way home was that there were 24.)
There were seven Americans present. 4 of them landed spots in the Top 8.
We played 5 rounds of Swiss, then cut to Top Eight. This went pretty smooth, starting at 3pm and we finished the last game of the finals about 10:30pm.
I did not play with any proxies. The majority of the field did, which created a more competitive environment and probably better turnout than some of the No Proxy tournaments I have played.
The Prelude (Skip this part if you don’t like to read. The Tourney Part comes later.)
The start of this day was in my favor. I was supposed to attend a Store Meeting at my work, which I wholeheartedly brushed off for the sake of some extra sleep. This was purely a metagame choice. Actually, I just didn’t wake up.
Having blown off work, I was feeling pretty good about myself. I still didn’t know where this tournament was or whether or not my borderline teammate Josh Frankelin (who I don’t think knows how to use a computer, and thus lacks a Mana Drain moniker) was going to be able to attend. I happen to be pretty crafty with a computer, however (I know how to log on to the internet, check my email, and download porn <TECH>) so I proceeded to search for this store online.
At first, my attempts were futile. But when all else failed, I realized that I had to go to the CANADIAN Yellow Pages to info for Canada. Clearly feeling like a fat man who just ate a whole village of island people, I find an address and directions. I call the store twice, but they have not yet opened and I am not really feeling good about info that my teammate acquired from a Canadian that hates me over the phone.
My brother calls (not a Mana Drainer, again lacking the computer skills) and starts to head over. Serialjester, my ride, I have now messaged three times, since while he does have a computer he does not have a phone, and I have failed to contact him. He dropped me off from the previous day tournament at a pretty reasonable hour, so he should be fine. Or so I think.
It is after one and I have now talked to the storeowner and everything is good, except my ride has not shown or emailed. Nervous, I get my things together and prepare to drive my untrustworthy beast into another country. I forgot the Clutch and Down cds in the house, so I run back in to get them. And, like miraculously top decking Squee, my ride pulls up. I do not have to drive. That is a victory in itself.
The drive is smooth, discussions are had on an assortment of things, and we only have a couple of detours getting to the Bridge. We arrive at said Bridge with about a half hour left to get there, plenty of time to get to the store after we cross the border.
Wrong.
Serialjester pulls right up behind the other guy checking in without stopping at the stop sign. The booth jockey is mad, I can see it in his eyes. After much discussion about the ordeal with him, we pull aside to be searched and have the car searched. Fortunately, we have no weapons and there is not too much hassle. I begin to call the shop as we head into the immigration office, a terrible play on my part. As I begin to explain the situation I walk into a sign that says NO CELL PHONES and create more grief. The start time for the tournament is in about ten minutes. We are doomed.
Immigrations is a small bit more time, but again not too much hassle. I call again outside, explaining the situation, and he says they will wait for us. The madman smiles, and we are on our way across Canadian soil. We were not too late, and I am loving this store for being cool already.
I just want to say Canadian street signs suck. But they have nicely paved roads. No potholes. This is definitely not Michigan. We get to the shop without further trouble, and its time to play cards.
The Deck List:
Worldgorger Dragon by Everythingitouchdies
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Island
1 Swamp
2 Tropical Island
1 Bayou
4 Underground Sea
4 Polluted Delta
4 Bazaar of Baghdad
2 Compulsion
3 Necromancy
4 Animate Dead
4 Worldgorger Dragon
3 Squee, Goblin Nabob
1 Ambassador Laquatus
1 Sliver Queen
3 Xantid Swarm
4 Force of Will
3 Duress
1 Vampiric Tutor
4 Intuition
2 Lim-Dul’s Vault
1 Ancestral Recall
SB
3 Sundering Titan
3 Verdant Force
4 Chalice of the Void
3 Null Rod
2 Echoing Truth
I don’t have the rest of the deck lists.
Tournament Report (Finally. No Bum Fights, No Circus Performers.)
My match notes on the Swiss Rounds are weaker than the Top 8, but get most of the interesting stuff and some of the endless swagger that accompanies my game play.
Round One: Dustin (B/G Crucible Control) Canadian
Game One: Innocently enough, I start this game out by having my animate spell duressed away. My opponent doesn’t seem to be aware of my deck or what it does. He says something about Re-Animator. I make a joke about my deck’s bride, which goes either unnoticed or unappreciated. So I get two lands wasted, and his third turn has him twisting a land and a squee away. I played Lim-Dul’s Vault in response, chuckling to myself. I am going to win next turn, and my opponent is oblivious.
I play bazaar on my third turn, it gets wasted, with two moxes on the board. I discard a dragon, squee, sliver queen, and I animate. It’s a million slivers, and we move to game two.
On his last turn he played a bayou. Other than that I have seen only wastes and duress and mind twist. Sui Black? Splash green maybe for deed? I don’t know what I am facing for sure, but I am not chancing it.
Side Board:
+3 Verdant Force, -1 Dragon, -1 Vampiric Tutor, -1 Intuition
Game Two: This is Bad News. Turn One, he plays fastbond. Turn two he plays Wasteland. Turn Three he plays a land and a Crucible. Turn four he plays Argothian Wurm. I play bazaar to pitch Dragon and Sliver Queen. I have one Basic Island in play. I have a Mox Emerald in play. I have a Mana Crypt, and it is rubbing my face in the sandbox on the playground. This could be going a little better.
That will teach me to win so fast game one.
He draws a fetch land, digs four lands and plays deed with 3 open. I draw necromancy. What a kick to the junk. Will he tap out? I took three from Crypt and one from a fetch. I am at 16.
I get hit with the Wurm. I am at 10 Life. He fetches more land. He is at 10 as well. He plays… Argothian Wurm #2. Ouch.
I survive the die roll, for some reason I was having trouble catching my coin so we switched over to dice. I am at seven. PAIN.
His turn, he declares his attack phase. Well, I am going to lose, so I decide to do it in style. I necromancy the dragon. No response. I am stunned.
I have no Ambassador. I now have a Sliver Queen and a million Slivers. He sacs the Deed for ZERO. I have sliver queen and no tokens. I make a token I block one Wurm with the Queen and am now at 1.
Mana Crypt is gone. I have a basic island and a sliver queen. None in hand. I draw a ruby. I make a second token. He is at 9.
He draws, passes. I draw and pass. He does the same again, and I make sliver token number 3. I am using playing cards that depict Elvis for sliver tokens. I proceed with Elvis queen beats for the win on my turn.
Free games are awesome.
I win this game, shake his hand, and try to remain polite since he doesn’t have a ton of experience. I spare him any ill words. I only taunt experienced players and people in Star Wars paraphernalia. And sometimes road kill.
Someone explained what he should have done to him, and he came over to talk to me about it. I shook my head, shook his hand again, and headed on.
1-0
Round Two: Tristen with U/W Control, Canadian
This match is pre-empted by my opponent commenting on how I am still playing Dragon. He is one of the Canadians that have wandered over to Pandemonium a few times, and I can expect some competition. No free games like the first round.
Game One: I remember he used to play oath. This starts out with a tundra, and I think it may be the same. I make mention of beating him with an alternate win condition, I think at the time it was Caller of the Claw, and he reveals that he is not playing Oath. I assume from the first couple turns that it is 4cc.
I set up the dragon combo right off, but I have no way to protect it so I pass. He shocks me with a 3rd turn Meddling Mage. This is bad for me, as he names animate dead, which I have in my hand. I will have to win with Necromancy, since I do not play Dance of the Dead.
I am dazzled yet again as 4th turn he plays Meddling Mage again, this time for Necromancy. I have lost, but I do not scoop. I need to see more of what he is playing. What I see is an Angel, and I get beat to death.
Side Board:
-4 Dragon, -1 Ambassador, -1 Sliver Queen, -3 X swarms, -1 Vampiric Tutor
+3 VF, +3 Titan, + 4 COTV
Game Two: I lead with a Chalice for one of Emerald Sol Ring. I play bazaar and pitch Verdant Force. Turn Two he is in play. Verdant Force activates his “Opponent scoops at the end of your turn� ability and we go on to the last game.
Game Three: You should never keep a hand just because adding a bazaar to it would set up a broken win. Because you will never get the Bazaar. I get crushed this game, playing next to nothing, and watching that get countered.
I am pretty devastated by this loss, but then I look at my Mana Crypt coin. Satan Head on one side, St. Patrick’s Day celebration on the other. The Satan Head cheers me up, and I feel all warm and evil inside.
1-1
Round Three: Trevor (Mono Black Workshop) American (sort of)
Trevor is playing a deck I designed and gave up. I am particularly energetic after my loss, and Trevor is up for some taunting. Not that he really has a choice, it is coming anyway. He would not tell me what he settled on for the sideboard, so I assume it is pretty heavy hate against me.
Game One: He goes first, plays a proxied Mishra’s Workshop. I inspect the proxy in response to him playing Trinisphere, asking him questions about the Shop that he seems bewildered to hear. Poor Trevor. I then inspect the 3sphere as if I have never seen it. I ask all about its rules interaction, making Trevor twitch a bit. After much grief I show him a Force of Will, and pitch a Compulsion. Then I combo out on turn 2. Maniacal laughter is a fine prelude to game two.
-1 Dragon, -1 VT, -1 Intuition +3 VF
Game Two: This game has my teammate Josh Frankelin (sitting next to me) laughing hysterically. Some of the quotes on my match notes include, “I would prefer you were not eating chips while cutting my deck� and “What’s Juggernaut? Hey what is this part about the cave? You mean he hits me if I am in a cave? What if I am in a Glacial Chasm?� and “Satan likes the Donuts.� Trevor is really nervous, but he keeps seven with something he is excited to play turn one.
Turn one he plays Ankh of Mishra. He does so off a proxied pearl, which I interrogate him about and comment on the smeared ink and the near illegible hand writing. I eventually give that up and Force of Will the Ankh. He sighs and sets his hand down.
I play swamp and sapphire and pass the turn.
He plays a proxied workshop, and I ask him what it does again. He patiently explains, and I begin to stare blankly. I got a slight smile at this point, he seemed to lighten up. He plays Juggernaut. Insert Juggy quote from above. I play Lim-Dul’s Vault during his end step.
I untap, draw bazaar, play it and pitch dragon. I cast animate dead and win.
2-1
Round 4: James (G/W Enchantress) Canadian
This round sucks because I am hungry. Taunting Trevor makes me want to consume food, and I hope this round will go quick. My match notes are more about how birds of paradise would taste good cooked than they are about the game.
Game One: I combo out third turn without any opposition. I get to view his graveyard and he lets me look without scooping. I see main deck seal of cleansing. Otherwise, aggro with Ancestral Masks and Berserk. No problems anticipated.
I choose not to sideboard.
Game Two: I duress turn 3 hitting one of 2 STP. I combo turn 4, Forcing the other STP. This was a much easier round than I expected. I am happy, it’s over quick.
I am off to get food, which ends up being a hamburger bigger than my head and some fries that they offered me gravy for. I was so bothered by the gravy concept I did not even eat the fries, not that I would have room after the burger. The one Serialjester ate was twice the size mine was, somewhere around the size of a Yu-Gi-Oh world champion.
3-1
Round 5: Mike, A Canadian they call Scratch (Ravager)
I offer mike the draw, since it puts us both in top 8. He agrees, expecting me to be a terrible match up anyway. It does not help that this guy hates Dragon more than anything, and he has had plenty of opportunity to express that to me over the 8 months I have been playing it.
I win two of the three, and he does not complain about my combo too much. There is a lot of discussion over Top 8 slots, and I saunter off to discuss some of my play and commentary. In the end I get to play the guy I wanted to play least. Tristen.
3-1-1
Good Times.
The Good Stuff: Top 8
Top 8 is:
Mike (Ravager) Canadian
Brian (Stax) American
Jeremy (4cc) Canadian
Tristen (U/W Control) Canadian
Ben, aka everythingitouchdies (Dragon) American
Kris, aka pacman XSA (EDIT: 7/10 variant)
Andrew (Fish) My little bro, American
Dan, aka Serialjester (Mono Brown Rogue Crusher) American
If any of you have Mana Drain monikers for me to attach (or if I forgot your name, PM me and I will fix it)
Top 8: Tristen Revisited (U/W Control) Canadian
Game One: This is perhaps the most insane game I have played in a long time, extremely unorthodox and it couldn’t have happened against a better guy.
I lead, and my hand is weird. Turn 2 I cast Squee of a ruby. The bewilderment is all over, and it makes things interesting. What kind of bad Dragon player casts Squee? Well, it was Japanese Squee, and I didn’t have a discard outlet. Let the drums march my little goblin to war.
It gets better.
Squee beats all the way to 14. A xantid swarm joins the mix with him at 16, and my opponent stifles its attack the first time I swing with it. Good waste of a stifle. I have nothing but a Dragon and a land in hand.
I attack with Squee and the swarm. I drew Black Lotus. I have a Dragon in hand. I have a land and two moxes. Heh heh. Second main phase, I play black lotus. A grimace on Tristen’s face, and a mad smile on mine. I feel like a Cheshire cat as I sac my lotus for three mana. Three RED mana. The anticipation peaks, and the Worldgorger Dragon hits the table. The mob goes wild. No more Squee, no more swarm, no more two moxes and no more land. I play a land. Pass.
I am staring at my opponent who is going to die to my beat stick in 2 hits. He top decks STP, kills my dragon, and plays an Exalted Angel. I am at 25.
I draw a neat card, Bazaar of Baghdad. I hold it.
I get hit with the Angel, joking about negating the Squee beats. With my permanents back, I actually have some mana.
I untap and draw… Worldgorger Dragon. I still have a land in hand, I swing with the Xantid swarm and Squee. I tap, discard dragon, and cast animate dead.
I cast Squee and Dragon. There are some bragging rights.
SB: Same as before, out combo and swarms and VT, in COTV, S Titan, VF.
Game Two: The ultimate follow-up to the first game. This is magic at its finest.
I play bazaar, he wastes it. I play bazaar, he strips it. I play bazaar, he swears like a sailor. I had three bazaars in hand. Bad times.
He plays Meddling Mage. He calls Dance of the dead. I don’t play dance of the dead. Heh heh.
I have two COTV for one out. I am happy, he is sad. I get mocked a little for playing the 2nd one, but it was the right call. He had a way to deal with one, not two.
I have Titan in the grave, but he would kill two of my lands and one of Tristen’s. No way.
I FOW his Exalted Angel.
I animate dead , he wishes and grabs Hurkyl’s Recall. He expects titan. I grab angel. Ouch.
He plays a brainstorm. Two COTV set at one still on the board. I laugh hysterically. He has commented on the COTVs at least ten times, I didn’t expect this play error. He even found humor in this, so the laughter erupts on both sides.
From here, my notes read “Beat down Extravaganza.� That would be because Two Verdant Forces were up there with the Angel, and I was capable of animating a third. Tristen lost well, and I really enjoyed these games.
Top 4: Brian (Stax) American
I have a bad track record against Brian. He is really good, and I know he knows this match up is rough and is well prepared. I shake off the intimidation and get ready to play, and game one is fantastic.
Game One: Lim-Dul’s Vault on turn 2 sets up the third turn win. No contest, though I was at 12 life after the vault. The game was intense and extremely short, I don’t have notes as to what was in hand or exactly how the first two turns played.
Game 2: He breaks my spirit with his opening. He plays COTV for 2. Ouch. He plays Tormod’s Crypt. More ouch. He plays a couple wastelands over the course of the next two turns. Eventually he beats me to death with a Triskelion played off his Lotus. A sphere of resistance made things more futile. I was really focused now, quiet and calm.
Game 3: We both mulligan to 5 cards. My hand is Underground Sea, Bazaar, Vampiric Tutor, Force of Will, and Intuition.
I play the Underground and pass. He plays 2 sapphire and 2 tormod’s crypts. I Vampiric for Ancestral.
Turn two I play bazaar, cast ancestral, and draw a Duress, Jet and Null Rod. I play Jet and Duress. He has Crucible, Chalice, and Grim Monolith. I hit the Chalice.
He draw goes. I play null rod.
We both draw and pass. He plays Workshop and Crucible. I play LD Vault. I untap, bazaar, animate Verdant Force. This game is mine.
Brian is great, he goes on to play against Ravager and win the Moat.
Finals: Jeremy (4cc) Canadian
I somehow start this match with no knowledge of what my opponent is playing. He stood over my shoulder and watched the last game of my top 4. He knows exactly what I am playing.
Game One: This is an amazing Game. I lead with fetch: swamp Duress, and I see a waste, strip, LoA, Fetch, Brainstorm, Force, something white. I hit force. I have 3 land, a bazaar and an intuition in hand. I draw Lim-Dul’s Vault.
He strips the swamp. Heh heh. One less bazaar killer.
I play Tropical Island, he wastes it.
I play bazaar, and use lim-dul’s vault to set up the win at the end of the turn he drops crucible. Just in time, I was not prepared for him to shut my land out. I combo in the face of 6 cards, none of which counter.
Awesome.
SB: 4 COTV, 3 VF, 3 S Titan –Combo, VT, X swarms.
Game Two: I kept the worst hand of six that I have ever kept. I don’t know why. I played a mana crypt, COTV for 1, and had no land. I died mostly to mana crypt, but an angel popped up to finish me off. This game was quick and uneventful, I just kept changing my life total. I go first game three, and I am happy.
Game 3: This is a total control game. I keep a hand of Sea, Duress, 2 Intuition, and 2 FOW. He mulls to 5. I play duress, see balance, disenchant, brainstorm, FOW, decree of justice, land. I hit disenchant. I FOW an ancestral his ancestral recall. Then he Forces my Ancestral, and I play COTV for one. He balances to kill one of my land, we both have two cards, one land, and 1 ruby. I have FOW and Intuition.
He top decks mana, plays angel face down. FOW, then I top deck animate dead. I ride the angel out for a while, playing a second COTV for 1, and I attempt to animate again. It gets forced, and I don’t get titan. That’s okay, I ride the angel for the win.
Lesson of the Day: Animating your Opponent’s Angel and beating them to death with it is rude. But hey, it got me another time walk. Second lesson: Squee can do damage.
Thanks for reading,
EITD of Team Gone Fishin’
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