Dreamer’s Vintage Mox Tournament
12/12/04
Prize: Mox Jet
Participants: 23
Placing: 5-8th (lost in top 8, no playoffs)
My Teammate Draven has posted a report here:
http://www.themanadrain.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=21069So I will skip the preliminaries.
My own report is as follows:
Once again this month I am playing my pet deck, Salvagers, which has nonentheless taken me to a Top 4 and now a Top 8 at Dreamers, and done well for others in other tournaments.
The list for this month:
Creatures (11):
4 Auriok Salvagers
4 Trinket Mage
2 Exalted Angel
1 Darksteel Colossus
Draw (8):
4 Brainstorm
3 Impulse
1 Ancestral Recall
Utility (5)
2 Cunning Wish
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Tinker
Counters (8)
4 Force of Will
4 Counterspell
non-mana Artifacts (4):
3 Pyrite Spellbomb
1 Crucible of Worlds
Mana (24):
1 Black Lotus
1 Lion's Eye Diamond
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring
4 Flooded Strand
3 Tundra
4 Plains
6 Island
1 Strip Mine
Total: 60
Sideboard (15):
3 Swords to Plowshares
3 Disenchant
2 Blue Elemental Blast
1 Stroke of Genius
1 Stifle
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Decree of Justice
1 Control Magic
1 Energy Flux
The main changes from October are more basic lands, and cutting the Red from the sideboard so as to make the manabase more stable.
With only 23 players, there were only 5 rounds.
Rd 1 vs Pat playing a deck with Goblin Welders and painlands.
I win the roll and opt to play.
Game 1 I have the Salvagers and the Lotus in my opening hand. I play them both 1st turn, while he has 1st turn Welder. 2nd turn I draw a Pyrite Spellbomb, ask him if he is familiar with the combo. He asks me to show him the kill card, granting me the mana combo. I flash the Pyrite and it's on to Game 2.
I believe I sided in 2 Disenchant for an Impulse and a Trinket Mage.
Game 2 I have the Salvagers in my opening hand, but no Spellbomb or
Lotus. He has 1st turn Welder again, while I have 2nd turn Trinket Mage, which fetches me the Black Lotus. When I play the Salvagers 3rd turn, he scoops, this time without making me show him the kill card. I had Cunning Wish for Stroke of Genius.
This match took about 10 minutes, tops.
2-0 games, 1-0 matches
Rd 2 vs Cory, playing Stax.
Game 1 he has first turn Workshop, Mox, Chalice for 0, which resolves, due to my not having Force of Will. I am unconcerned, however, as I have Cunning Wish. He also plays Tangle Wire, which does nothing but slow the game down a bit. A Mishra's Factory hits the table, and swings twice, getting me down to 15, as I had used a Fetchland. I Cunning Wish for Disenchant, Disenchant the Chalice and proceed to Combo off. He scoops.
I side in 2 Disenchant, 1 Energy Flux for Impulse, Trinket Mage and Pyrite Spellbomb.
Game 2 sees him play another early Chalice for 0. I Brainstorm in response, and don't get Force of Will, so it resolves. He resolves a Tangle Wire, off an early Mana Crypt as well. I see no counters, but do manage to play a Face Down Angel once the Wire has Faded. He, however, plays Smokestack, which, combined with my play mistakes cause me to lose the game. For some unknown reason I forget to turn my Angel face up in response to the Smokestack trigger, and instead sacrifice my Sol Ring and a Plains. He plays a Chalice for 4 in play along with the Chalice for 0.
His Mana Crypt backfires on him almost every turn, getting him down to 8 life, but since I misplay and don't draw anything relevant, I lose to Juggernaut and Double Mishra's Factory. After this game, I feel pretty stupid.
Game 3, however, I play an early Salvagers off the Lotus. He plays an early Tangle Wire, forcing me to wait a few turns to have enough mana untapped to combo out. He draws nothing else to stop me, and I Combo him out.
This was the first time I had actually faced Stax. I had read about it, but not played against it.
What I learned from this matchup: Tangle Wire is annoying, but not Fatal.
Smokestack is also annoying, and can be fatal. Chalice is annoying, but again, not fatal, as I have answers and other win conditions.
4-1 games 2-0 matches
Rd. 3 vs Jon (Frost) playing Belcher
I recognise Jon's name on the pairing sheet as one of the better known and good players at Dreamers and know I am in for a rough time. I don't know before the match what he is playing, which I suppose is fair since he admits to not knowing what I'm playing.
He wins the roll, choosing to play.
Game 1
We draw our 7 cards, and he stares at his for at least 2 minutes, saying nothing. I politely stare at my hand, looking up at him a few times. Finally he asks me something like "I don't suppose you'd tell me what your playing before I choose whether or not to mulligan?" I reply with something to the effect that "I'll give you the hint that I made top 4 a few months ago, but that probably won't help." He mulligans down to 6, choosing to keep. I keep my hand of suffcient lands, a counter, Trinket Mage and I believe Brainstorm.
He plays 1st turn Land Grant, using the alternate casting cost, and I know what he is playing. I see lots of broken stuff, including Timetwister, and comment that I'm going to lose. He disagrees, saying that there is not much there. I still disagree, but admit that I don't know the details of Belcher all that well, just the theory.
His Land Grant gets him a Bayou, which he uses to play Dark Ritual (I think), and eventually he plays Timetwister as well, making my mulligan decision irrelevant. We draw 7 and I now have: Force of Will, Force of Will, Brainstorm, Mystical Tutor, Trinket Mage, Impulse and another non-land card. Ouch. He passes the turn, and I draw something irrelevant, passing the turn and discarding. He comments on my lack of land drop. I frown. On his turn, I Force a couple of things, pitching Mystical Tutor and Trinket Mage, and the jig is up as to which deck I am playing. He passes and I draw Lion's Eye Diamond, which I play. This time he comments that it was a bad land drop, and I agree. I pass, and EOT he resolves Vampirc Tutor.
On his turn he resolves Belcher and Belches me for 7. I finally draw an Island, but it's too late and he kills me.
I side in Disenchants and Stifle.
Game 2 I set up for the early Tinker off Mystical Tutor, but he plays Timetwister. My Twister hand contains Darksteel Colossus. I resolve Trinket Mage for Black Lotus, but still no Salvagers. I Brainstorm seemingly in response to every one of his spells, never drawing Force of Will. He resolves 2 Goblin Welders. I have about 8 mana on the table, counting the Lotus, when he plays Wheel of Fortune, which draws me the Salvagers I need to go off. Instead, however, he resolves Belcher and Belches me from 20 to 0 in one shot. Blah.
4-3 games, 2-1 Matches
Rd 4 vs Kyle, playing Life combo
I had talked to Kyle before the tournament, and knew he was playing a Life combo deck. He knew I was playing Salvagers. His combo uses En-Kor creatures with either Task Force or Daru Spiritualist to get an Arbitraily large Toughness creature, then sacrificing it to either Diamond Valley or Starlit Sanctum, along with Test of Endurance for the win. He is unhappy to be playing me, since my Damage trumps his Life, and I have counters, whereas he has none.
Game 1 sees me Force a Daru Spiritualist and Strip a Starlit Sanctum, while he beats me down to 12 with Nomads En-Kor, Task Force, and other random white guys with powers of 1 each, giving me plenty of time to find and play my combo. I do so.
Game 2 I side in a few Swords to Plowshares. It's more of the same. He actually manages to get his combo in play, however he declines to use it, saying that there is no point. I shrug and play the Salvagers and the Lotus, but don't have a kill card. He scoops to the Salvagers and Lotus. I thought later that I probably should have told him after the match that he should make me show him the kill card, and that I didn't have it, but I don't get the chance, as he's gone when I think of it (during top 8).
Games 6-3, Matches 3-1
At this point I am rather certain I can draw in. Pairings go up for Rd. 4 and I am playing my Teammate, Dan (Draven). We do some calculations, with help from Jon (Frost) and decide that if we ID, we both make it, and if we did play, one of us wouldn't make it. We take the draw.
Games 6-3, Matches 3-1-1
Top 8 Vs. Jon (Frost) still playing Belcher.
I am not really looking forward to the rematch, but am happy to be in Top 8.
I don't remember all the details of Game 1, but I remember the relevant bits. I resolve Salvagers, but lack the Lotus to go off. He resolves Belcher and Belches. He reveals 7 cards before hitting a land, and then points to the Salvagers. He did not, however, declare a Target when he activated the Belcher. I had assumed he was Targeting me, but his pointing to the Salvagers said otherwise. We call for the Judge, and he clarifies the rules on playing abilities. Namely, that the Target must be declared before the ability is activated, not after revealing the cards. Since I had assumed
he was targeting me, that's his proposed fix. I am fine with it, and Jason (the Judge) is as well. I take 7, going down to 12 (Fetchland). He passes.
I still don't have the Lotus, but I now have Mystical Tutor, Brainstorm, and Impulse. I play the Mystical, fetching the Enlightened Tutor. I play the Enlightened Tutor, fetching the Black Lotus. Unfortunately, I have only a Mox Ruby left untapped, thus lacking the mana necessary to draw the Lotus off the Impulse and win. I say so. I pass the turn. On his turn, he Belches, this time clearly targeting the Salvagers. He turns over two cards before hitting his second land. He passes, and I combo for the win.
This game showed how bad the matchup really is for me: It took a misplay and very bad luck on his side for me to win.
I side in Disenchants and Stifle again.
Game 2 sees me get an Exalted Angel face up, but it's not enough and he Belches me with both of his lands on the table.
Game 3 sees him resolve an early Xantid Swarm off Elvish Spirit Guide, after I countered his Land Grant. This is my misplay of the match, as I could have countered the Xantid Swarm, but didn't think it would wreck me as badly as it did. It probably didn't matter, since he had a second one a few turns later, but I know better now. I may be confusing this game for Game 2, however.
In either case, my tournament is done for the day. My Teammate also loses, so we buy some stuff from Jason, and head out.
Final results:
Games 6-5 Matches 3-2-1, good enough for 5-8th on the day.
Next month: Intuition! Bye-bye Crucible, Lion's Eye Diamond. Hello Island and Time Walk (?).
