Pre-tournament banter (strategy & discussion)
Ahh, Waterbury, the biggest event in the northeast, some might say, all of Type 1, er I mean Vintage. Obviously a lot has changed in the last few weeks, never mind the last year. Once Iamfishman’s tournaments started gaining prominence (and attendance ) late last year, they’ve become the proving grounds for anyone in north eastern part of the US, and more than that, a place to hang out and meet a large bulk of TMD’s members, both well known and unknown.
While the GenCon championship was lauded as the biggest event of the year, I know at least I was disappointed with its results. Don’t get me wrong; I had a good time. I also got to see people (crews from CA, Toronto and mid-Atlantic) who I’d never get to converse with if not for GenCon. However, this year, it was clearer to me how weak the prize support is, how poorly the event is judged, and that the field in general was smaller and less competitive than I anticipated. Hopefully I won’t get beheaded for that last comment; let me explain. As a disclaimer I have no delusions about how bad of a magic player I am. However, in spite of my ineptitude, my poor choice of deck to play, and my numerous play errors at the actual event, I cruised in at #18 with a 5-2-1 record. How, you might ask? Weak opponents and bad decks are the explanation.
While I don’t think anyone can argue about this year’s GenCon bringing out (with a few exceptions), the absolute cream of the crop in terms of the best players from T1. I’d argue that there was a huge disparity between the top and bottom of the competitors in this event. Much more so than you’d find at your average Waterbury. If you look at the rounds I report below, you can see that with possibly one exception, every deck I faced was tier one. While the event did cut to a more inclusive T16, given the density of good opponents, I think it’s defensible to say that round for round, this is the most competitive tournament in T1. Add to this the excellent TO’ing by Ray and his staff, and its easy to see how Waterbury routinely brings in 150-200 people without the advantage of a large convention population, or being labeled the ‘T1 World Championship’…oh yeah, and who else has the precious mix of lesbian sex and magic?
Since GenCon I haven’t really put much energy into magic. I had been toying with possessed portal, but couldn’t really get it to work, so when I had to make a game-time decision on which deck to play I had the following choices:
4040’s, this deck is similar to the European Stax builds, except that it runs Juggernauts instead of Smokestack. It has other card choices, which gives it a lower curve, and, in my opinion, makes it more streamlined. I skipped on this deck because I expected lots of control slaver, and haven’t really learned how to mulligan with it adeptly.
Darksteel OSE, I think fire/ice is one of the better utility cards in the format right now, and this deck can weave that and annul into its frame with ease, while maintaining overall power and focus through a healthy amount of restricted cards, and the best permission in the game. My biggest problem with playing this, though, is that it has trouble with more aggressive decks, in spite of having lots of removal and tinker>darksteel combo. More than any particular card choice, I think the overall strategy of the deck is incompatible with the current status of T1. Site any number of ‘pure control is dead’ articles for specifics.
Mono-U Belcher, “wait, I thought control was dead?� Let me explain a little further. This deck is a Team Gro production, however, the innovation is almost exclusively Ultima’s with minor tweaks from Dave Hernandez and I. This deck has obvious similarities with Smennen’s Ophie deck, but the only real control it establishes is mana denial through strip effects and back to basics. The draw engine and win condition are much more similar to Hulk, but without being susceptible to Hulk-hate. This means that if it has to, it can win in a hurry (often turns 4-5). I almost sleeved this up, but I was uncomfortable with its ability to deal with lots of welders and good aggro. More than this, in a format like Type 1, I like to have access to as much raw power as possible.
Tinker-GAT, I’m a mix of about ½ competitive T1 player, ½ faithful pet-decker. I didn’t play this at GenCon due to my accurate prediction of lots of workshops and crucibles. For this Waterbury, I expected people to avoid playing workshops due to Control Slaver’s popularity. I also expected lots of TPS, since its finally getting the respect it deserves. More than this, I know that GAT is the deck I can pilot most effectively, and like Eastman is fond of saying, “T1 is a play-skill� format. Ironic, given how terrible the average T1 player is. The main point here being that because the environment is so diverse, and most matchups are close to 50-50, play-skill (and broken draws) determines the winner in most matches.
Finally, the actual report.
My tournament day starts at three in the morning with a call from Hulk3rules:
“You awake? Feel like drinking?�
Soon afterwards Hulk, Mykeatog, and Moobius arrived at my house for some late night ‘play-testing’. While Hulk and Moobius soon went to sleep, Myke and I were up until 6:30 putting the finishing touches on his deck, and downing Budweiser.
I somehow convinced my girlfriend to go running with me a couple hours later, and then I roused the rest of the troops for our ½ hour drive to Waterbury. Upon arrival it was obvious that all of the fashionable magic players were there, with a few pleasant surprises (JP, Ric Flair, Zherbus, and Carl’s ho’s). Good times.
It was at this point that I decided to sleeve up Tinker GAT, and start smashing face (list and card choices at end of report).
Round 1, Matt, playing Control Slaver
Matt is a friend I met recently at my new watering hole, er I mean gaming store, Sam’s Comics. It has a conducive environment of caffeine drinks, porn-adorned bathrooms, and video surveillance. Not to mention CT’s finest; Matt and I have slugged it out a few times recently. I begin my mental assault with “Ahh round 1, womp-a-scrub�
Game 1. I keep a hand with FoW and LoA. He’s searching frantically for threats to bait me into counter wars, but having trouble. I soon start drawing the broken stuff while dropping a dryad and beating down. He gives a last ditch effort by casting duplicant, but daze kicks him in the nuts.
Game 2. I don’t have a very impressive hand, but it does have a first turn dryad, which I back up with another Daze. I aggressively choose to cast an early Yawgwill, Night Whispers, swing, go. It turns out to work as I kill him before he gets anything going, and must chump away his welder the turn before he finds Mindslaver.
1-0, 2-0
It was at this point that Ray (Iamfishman) called a break for Pizza. I thought this was rather annoying, and particularly uncharacteristic of Ray, who usually runs no-nonsense tournaments. I later find that the culprit was Kowal’s, and the computer had been set up for British rules or something. Team Hadley took the opportunity to get some fresh air, and scarf some food provided, in a techly manner, by Caleb (MadManiac). Play resumes soon after…
Round 2, Sumgi, playing DeathLong
Game 1. I Daze his first turn Duress. Next he tries to ritual in a Necropotence, but I have the FoW (curses ensue). From there I’ve established my cantrip engine, and am starting to find broken things. Darksteel Collossus finishes him off before I run out of counters.
G2, Again, I keep a hand that is rather poor, except for the two force of will’s. I’m forced to stop a 1st turn Xantid Swarm, and I deliberate on whether to pitch FoW or Mana Drain. I only have 1 land currently, and I’m sure next turn is a threat, so I hope my next draw is a blue card. Accordingly, he attempts Timetwister next turn, but I’ve drawn Serum Visions, ensuring my survival. He spends the next few turns tutoring, which allows me time to set up an impressive counter wall. One instance had me wishing for the lost drain to stop a draw-7. Once I saw this guy get flustered game 1, I engaged in some mind games to coax him into playing either more or less aggressively depending on my counter magic availability. For the most part it worked.
2-0, 4-0
Rnd 3, Chris, playing Control Slaver
Chris was the quite type. He was also overly concerned with my game notes, which irked me. I made bad puns, and questioned his play decisions (sarcastically) as regularly as possible.
Game 1. I keep a below average hand since it has lots of early pressure, and drop a first turn dryad. Then I daze his Thirst for knowledge, and proceed to drop dryad #2. He plays turn 2 tinker for platinum angel. I’m not sure what his list was like, but I’m not sure if that was his best option (slaver players, opinions?) I start searching for Cunning Wish, and ghastly demise his angel at exactly four life.
Game 2. I let his first turn welder resolve and counter with a first turn dryad. I don’t have the counter for his turn two tinker>platinum angel, but I do stop blood moon on turn three. He’s full of gas, but he still can’t find anything better than angel to delay me. I’ve had wish since my opening hand, and force him to chump with welder while holding ghastly demise. He doesn’t find anything next turn, and I beat down for the win.
3-0, 6-0
Round 4, Kl0wn, playing transmute.dec
I know Bryce from the early days of TMD, when Binghamton and Hadley were feuding, and a big tournament was 40 people. We exchange pleasantries and then take off the gloves.
Game 1, I don’t have many early answers, and I have no idea what he’s playing, so I keep a hand based solely on the potential of Fastbond and Gush. I take an even bigger gamble by allowing his Transmute for Memory Jar to resolve since I’ve now drawn into Yawgmoth’s Will. I plan to let him fill up my graveyard and then win the following turn. His jar hand gives him Su chi, Ancestral (both of which I let resolve), lots of mana, and one big threat (I forget). I force, and he doesn’t have the extra blue card to Force Back. I use tutors or search to time walk next turn, and from there I go off with Yawgwill, Tinker, Darksteel, Berserk. This game illustrates how you can play combo if your hand and draws support it.
Game 2. His first turn he drops welder, my first turn I drop ground seal. I counter his transmute on su-chi, causing him to burn. I get my cantrip engine going, and finish him off with a big dryad. Regrowth->Time Walk set up broken things. The deck has been running very well.
4-0, 8-0
Rnd 5, Sumgi, playing mono-B dragon
Its unfortunate I can’t remember this guy’s name. He was plenty nice, and hails from the South Shore (MA) region if I recall correctly.
Game 1. Again, I don’t have any scouting info, and keep a relatively harmless hand. He casts turn 1 duress, and I brainstorm to hide merchant scroll (the only thing close to a counter I have). Turn two he Unmasks, hitting the scroll, and then animates the dragon for the win. I’m completely caught unawares, but I don’t think there was any way to win that game. I suffer my first and only game loss in Swiss.
Game 2. This is where hours downing mountain dew and bouncing to GnR while play-testing against iLL_Dawg paid off. If there’s one thing I know (and always sideboard for), its Dragon. In spite of this, he opens with double duress over two turns, taking a mana drain, and a diabolic edict. With me only drawing one card, he topdecks WG dragon, and casts animate dead. I give my best disbelief mannerism, and allow him to proceed with the loop (as I did game 1, to see his entire deck). Then, when he’s about to target Laquatus, I naturalize the enchantment, causing him to burn to death. Oh, sweet, sweet topdeck. He looks around, mouth agape, but there’s no options left. He admitted he had another duress in hand, but didn’t have the mana to do both.
Game 3. He was visibly shaken after the last game’s turn around. I keep a solid hand with Duress, 2x Daze, and Gush. He still busts out of the gates with duress, double animate, but I duress one of his animates, and stabilize long enough to find Ground Seal. Gush turns on LoA, and its gravy from there.
5-0, 10-1
Round 6, Derek, playing Burnination
Derek is another player from Binhampton, he’s a regular at pre-Waterbury parties, and a mellow guy. The last time I played him was last November’s Waterbury where I ran over him with scepter GAT.
Game 1. This was one of the few times in the tournament where the deck’s brokenness just took over: turn 1 tinker -> darksteel, scoop.
Game 2. Perhaps over-reacting to last game’s play, he keeps a hand with turn 1 Lotus, Viashino Heretic. He strengthens this position with a turn 2 Pyrostatic Pillar. In the meantime I’ve brainstormed twice and ancestraled, seeing 12 of the most broken cards in my deck, but only one land, which gets hit by Wasteland. However, he gets stuck at one source as well, and I find another land, and Hydroblast before he can find another threat. His heretic pings me down to six before I develop a team of dryads and win. His hand reveals an assortment of anti-creature cards, which didn’t enough for him, since my squad showed up late. Herein lies one of the great advantages of GAT. The opponent is usually forced to bring in anti-creature cards in order to deal with early beats, which leaves them even more open to the deck’s engine.
6-0, 12-1
Round 7, Sumgi, playing UB TPS
Another nice guy, who’s name I forgot to write down. He mentioned he made the trek up from Maryland by himself, and that Waterbury was all he hoped it would be. I gave the guy a lot of credit, but when he asked for a concession, I had to politely inform him that I wanted to play it out, even though I was already in the T16.
Game 1. His Duress takes a mana drain. I cast Night Whispers and Brainstorm. In spite of this improved hand quality, he goes Rit, Rit, Yawgwill, which promptly meets FoW. I counter Ancestral a couple turns later, and he’s out of gas, letting my dryads clean it up.
Game 2. He casts a turn 1 Windfall, I FoW back, but I have the correct feeling that he’s holding his own FoW, and we each draw five. I draw into Daze and Null Rod, and Daze his next turn’s Tinker. He complains about the mana vault in his hand, but I mention how I could have tutored for Tinker>Darksteel myself next turn. I drop Null Rod and kill him right before he was going for a small (4) Mind’s Desire. After the game we see if the Mind’s Desire would have won him the game (through my two mana drains), and it wouldn’t have, his only threat being Yawgmoth’s Bargain. We shake, and another combo player bites the dust.
7-0, 14-1
Rnd 8, Sumkid, playing Gay-R
I didn’t really feel like playing, but a perfect swiss at Waterbury is a nice accolade, and Mykeatog (my coach/cheerleader/enforcer after he was knocked out) convinced me I should beat on this little kid. I felt terrible when he started complaining that I wouldn’t draw, to who were probably his father and uncle. Here I am sitting pretty, and this 12 year old is going to get shown up in front of his family. It got worse…
Game 1. Turn two Tinker>Darksteel (with counter backup).
Game 2. Turn one, Night’s Whispers into Lotus to cast Tinker Darksteel (with FoW and Daze back up).
The kid was outraged and would barely shake my hand. At least his friends consoled him that would make T16 anyway. This was the other point in the tournament where the deck’s brokenness took over. It figures I get those draws against littlekid.player.
8-0, 16-1
So I finished a grueling swiss with a perfect record, and almost no game losses if not for the superb opening from the dragon player. I down some Chinese food and prepare for elimination rounds.
Ben Kowal is about to congratulate me on our 1-2 finish, when I get a call from my girlfriend. I step outside for a few minutes, and after putting some minor calamity of Molly’s to rest, I find that I’m paired against my Gro teammate, Ultima. I start to rue my choice to gun for the top seed.
Not only is Ultima a teammate, but he knows how GAT ticks as well as I do. He’s running Mono-U Belcher, which is probably a decent matchup for GAT, but since he knows the ins and outs of the matchup, it will be much more difficult. I know there were a lot of big names in the T16, but he is honestly the last person at the tournament that I wanted to face.
Game 1. I have to mulligan my opening hand, and my next 6 are relatively weak as well, but since I have a land and sapphire I have to keep it. My brainstorm reveals lots of green cards and no green mana, or shuffle effect. This forces me to wait two turns, or tap out to cast Night’s Whispers. Even still, I don’t know if I should have waited or not. Ultima ended up having the mana leak, and then he drops Back to Basics the next turn. He combos me out in short order with belcher.
Game 2. I don’t have much sideboard action for him (only Duress), but fortunately, neither does he, since the B2B are main, and there’s really no dead cards in his build, except for mana severance. I keep an average hand, and am met in the early game with all five of his strip effects. The fact that I was able to establish board position is proof of how resilient this deck is. I stabilize, and we fight a war over his tinker, which I won, but played incorrectly. I mana drained his ancestral instead of his tinker, so I lost the opportunity to set up crucible of worlds the next turn (with him at 0 cards). The next turn he topdecks B2B to slow my progress. In spite of this, over the next five turns I ancestral recall myself, regrowth it, time walk, setting up an even more impressive string of Crucible of Worlds, Yawgmoth’s Will, and Tinker. He has counters to all of these (in spite of little or no card draw), and all I can do is shrug, as he takes over from there.
I want to make it clear that it wasn’t dumb luck that won Ultima the game, and its likely he would have womped me game three as well. He did outplay me in the counter wars we did fight, and I failed to optimize my threats. Him keeping a hand full of strip effects was a solid strategy against GAT, but I was able to squirm my way into position to win the game. All tournament I had answers when I needed, but this game it was his turn, as he ripped counter after counter (what Mono-U is known for, I guess). It was a thrilling, yet disappointing end to the tournament for me.
I didn’t stick around, since it was 12:30, but congrats to TAL for another impressive win. Hopefully someday I’ll get to play him so I can see how Control Slaver really works.
Props:
Ray (and your staff), excellent tournament, great prizes.
Tal, see above
Ben, for finishing at the top of swiss with me
Mykeatog, for telling me to play GAT, and talking trash in the later rounds, so I didn’t have to
Caleb, for brining pimp food, and learning the way of the GAT
Rest of Team Hadley, good times both before and during the tournament.
Kerz & everyone else who made the tournament a blast, just by being goofy MF’s
Patrick Flynn, I don't know anything about this guy, except that he hooked me up with chinese food when my ass was dragging
Slops:
Ben, usually Ray's events are run flawlessly, leave it to Hadley to fuck up the works
Ultima, mising punk, I'll get you yet!!!
Shortbus, scheduling conflicts be damned, we owe you a night of hard-core boozing
Wining Fish Kid, Tinker smelled bad karma and owned you
Oh yeah, the list:
Uber-GAT
Beats (6)
4x Quirion Dryad
1x Psychatog
1x Darksteel Collossus
Answers (12)
4x Force of Will
3x Mana Drain
3x Daze
2x Cunning Wish
Search/Draw (9)
4x Brainstorm
3x Night's Whispers
2x Serum Visions
Teh Broken (12)
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Gush
1x Tinker
1x Merchant Scroll
1x Mystical Tutor
1x Time Walk
1x Regrowth
1x Fastbond
1x Crucible of Worlds
1x Yawmoth's Will
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Vampiric Tutor
Mana (21)
5x Blue Fetches
3x Underground Sea
3x Tropical Island
2x Island
1x Strip Mine
1x LoA
5x Moxen
1x Black Lotus
Sideboard
1x Berserk
1x Fact or Fiction
2x hydroblast
2x Duress
2x Energy Flux
1x Naturalize
1x Null Rod
1x Ghastly Demise
1x Wail of the Nim
1x Diabolic Edict
2x Ground Seal
Word
