Part 1, ReportThe biggest Type 1 tourney of the year would take place November 21st, at the 401 store in downtown Toronto. Around 60 people, very tough competition. Almost everyone that was anybody was there, with some exceptions (no names, in case I forget someone:)). Even long-retired Andy Petkovics (Petko) came, so it was good.
Round 1: Elves, with a LOT of Scrappers, Viridian ZealotsI sadly forgot his name, I think it was Adam. If not, I apologize, I was too tired to even remember MY name.
He tramples me game 1, but I win game 2 and 3 at zero life, on the back of Platinum Angel, while countering his Zealots and Naturalizes. Tinker is great. I SB out Titan, 3 Welders and 3 Blood Moons, for 3 Oath, 2 Tropicals, 1 Blessing and 1 Triskelion.
1-0-0
Round 2: George Popescu (xaltair) - Fish with StandstillHe smacks me like a b!tch game 1. It's not even funny. And he doesn't really drop anything nasty, no Null Rods, no Disks (either or)... just smacks me.
In game 2, he makes a critical mistake, allowing me to come back and win. We decide to ID, since we don't want it coming down to a random game 3, being friends and all.
InterludeGeorge is a fellow Romanian, and unlike me, he was born and raised in the Romanian capital of Bucharest (I am a Transylvanian... "VLAH"). That city is essentially a 5 million people ghetto of dirt, poverty, crime and danger. There are wild dogs that roam the streets as well. You gotta respect people that get bitten by those things... then bite back.... don't mess with George.
End Interlude1-0-1
Round 3: Ian Smith (smithian) - StaxGame 1, I start well, and set up a gigantic Yawgmoth's Will. Then I forget about a Blood Moon in play, and use a Polluted Delta. Game loss for idiocy (and illegal play).
Game 2, I am a bit rattled, and I play badly, whereas Ian plays amazingly. I Mindslaver him in desperation, and he casts Meditate in response. I was so shocked by that, I just conceded in the face of death. {Though, as our fine judges have since informed us all, I would still get to take their next turn, after taking another one of my own, but I didn't realize this then, and nor did Ian}
1-1-1
At this point, I still have a shot (have to win 3 straight), but I am on the ropes. I know it and I am worried.
Round 4: Ray Mitchell (Razor) - Cherry ParfaitIt sucks to play friends for elimination, but Ray and I face off against each other. Ray is an incredibly tough opponent, but a great person, and very pleasant to play against. He is the co-creator and maintainer of several really strong decks, such as Parfait and Oshawa Stompy.
Game 1, again, I get bitchslapped. Parfait is THE deck to mess people up with.
Game 2, I Mana Drain 2 Charbelchers during his turn, and set up a MASSIVE Yawgmoth's Will with 18 mana. Slaver, Titan, Welders, Ancestral, Walk, the works.
Game 3, He plops down a first turn Humilty, then an Ivory Mask, so I am forced to beat him down with non-welding Welders and Scornful Egotists (1/1 for 7-8 mana). I set up another massive Will, and in extra turns he gets a belcher, but his deck has too many lands to kill me on turn 5. He can only get me down to 5 life, and he then concedes to me before the end of turn 5, while he is at 1. A tie will not serve either of us, and such an incredible display of camaraderie, when it really matters... I will not forget it.
2-1-1
Round 5: Dan Rosu (Old_Dan_Of_The_Sea) - TMS, 5/3Another friend and I have to duke it out for a spot. Dan is at 3-1-0, so if he beats me, he may be able to draw in (which was proven false). I still have a shot, so I elect to play.
Game 1, I forget how things go, I counter key things, then get enough Welders to be safe.
Game 2, he plops down a first turn Chains of Mephistopheles, then another on the second turn. Then I Brainstorm on turn 4. Draw 3, discard 6, put 2 back. Clever play, huh... this however enables me to get the Pentavus in the graveyard, and the Yawgmoth's Will on top of the library. I then win with Pentavite beats, off a crappy Will of just replaying Mana Crypt and Tinkering it for a Sol Ring, but that gave me enough mana to actually make enough tokens to stop his marauding Juggernauts.
3-1-1
There is only one more opponent between me and a Top 8 spot.
Round 6: Arend Kraehling (specialK) - Drain Slaver mirror, same archetype, vastly different decksAgain a friend, again for elimination, and again a match-up I am not happy to face. Since we came together to the venue, we decide to split the prize (hopefully there will be one). Since I pretty much only test with Arend (and Peter Olszewski), we know this matchup very well. It will come down to one thing, and one thing only. Welder wars. This match is, as we agree upon, retarded. It also sucks that only one of us can make it. Arend is 3-0-2 at this point, so a win will get him in. I would be at the precarious 4-1-1 spot, with maybe one person not making it. We decide to play, and let the winner advance, and make sure there is a winner.
Game 1, I get more Welders, and I can overwhelm Arend with Welding tricks.
Game 2. Arend runs Orchards maindeck, and he cannot get coloured mana early enough to prevent using them (they are horrible in the mirror match-up). The early counter wars and card drawing shenanigans leave me with 5 spirit tokens and a Goblin Welder. The beatdown ensues, and finally he gets to Mindslaver me, but at that point I only have land in hand, and topdeck another mana source. On the final turn, Arend casts a flurry of drawing and manipulation spells, but doesn't score a Yawgmoth's Will.
At this point, we start to analyze our chances. None of us had ANY time to scout and calculate, since we all had hectic matches up to and including this one, so we don't know what we would be facing. Both of our decks have comfortable match-ups with most things, except his Orchards give him an edge in the Oath matchup, whereas the lack of them gives me an edge vs. control. Regardless, we know that either of us has a really good shot, especially since my main deck Blood Moons will really give me an edge vs. everything.
The thing about Drain Slaver and its variants is they do very well vs. established and strong decks.
Top 8 Positions:
1st - Glenn Miller, with Madness, and a LOT of main deck hate.
2nd - Steve Wolfman, with Akroma/Spirit Oath with Control Magic SB and MD Echoing Truth.
3rd - Marc Sims (slowdowntubby), with 3 colour Tog.
4th - Ian Smith, with 5-colour Stax.
5th - Rob, with Suicide Black.
6th - Duncan McGregor (RobRoy), with Oath, but I have no idea about the customization.
7th - Me. Yay!
8th - Shawn Stewart (Balzary), with 5-colour Stax.
9th - Peter Olszewski (dicemanx), with his own crazy deck, and a lot of bad luck.
Pictures and decklists of most of Top 8:
http://www.401games.ca/features/type1nov212004.htmlTop 8: Steve WolfmanI finally meet the vaunted Wolfman (one of the best players in Canada, and thus the world
), and get to face him. I must admit I am a bit nervous.
Game 1, everything goes according to plan. I manage to get down a Blood Moon (while having 2 Spirit tokens), and start the beats. He does get down an Oath after casting Echoing Truth on my Blood Moon. Rats. Just as things look their darkest, the Platinum Angel shows her sweet hips, and I manage to stave off death for a bit. I get the Slaver lock going, with a Pentavus in the graveyard, but I want to make sure his hand is empty before allowing him a turn where I would Weld the Pentavus in and not Slaver him. His hand is Mana Leak and Mana Drain, with 4 mana on the table (3 blue). I finally draw him a Mox Ruby, which gets double countered, and I draw a Mana Drain on my turn, and proceed to get the "complete" lock going.
Game 2, he gets the "I get to bitch-slap people, especially Welder-wielding people, opening". Black Lotus, Orchard, Ground Seal and Oath of Druids. He even had Force of Will back-up I believe, but I had no Force to do anything. I get slapped. Hard. And I don't enjoy it.
Game 3, he gets another fast Oath, and gets Spirit on the table fast. As per Meandeck Oath rules, you don't counter Welders, but Wolfman, knowing better, does. I manage to block his counter with one of my own, and then cast my "super-secret, super-powerful, anti-Oath card". It's not the Angel. And I win based on that.
Steve was a tough opponent, but very polite (although he kept telling me to tap the Library for mana with seven cards in hand... ). After besting him, I feel a bit more confident, knowing that at least, I am guaranteed a Drop of Honey.
Top 4: Marc SimsTog with 3 colours runs a couple of interesting cards, and it's a bit safer against its two greatest opponents, Slaver and Titan.
Game 1, Marc has to mulligan into a fairly mana light hand, and I get down a Blood Moon. At some point, I Tinker into a Titan, nuking 2 of his lands (a mountain/dual and an island), and just go all the way.
Game 2, it's more of the same. Marc gets another bad mana hand (after a mulligan), and yet again, huge threats do him in.
I believe this is the third time in a row at 401 that Marc cruised to the Top 8/4, and lost because of bad luck. A player to watch for sure.
Finals: Shawn StewartIt's funny that the 7th and 8th entries duke it out for the top.
Game 1, I counter his threats (read Welders), drop a Blood Moon to slow his mana production, and just win with a Platinum Angel beats after Tinkering her in.
I SB out the Blood Moons, since there's really nothing else to SB out, for artifact killing. I also exchange the useless Titan (too big a Duplicant target and he only kills my land) for the Triskelion. SBing out the Blood Moons was the biggest mistake of the day... but the tournament just passed 12 hours, and I was exhausted.
Game 2, his hand is just brutal. Workshop, Lotus, Ancestral, Tinker, stuff, whatever... I get trampled. Oh, boy.
So it comes down to game 3. In retrospect, we both have really good hands. I start with an opening hand of Ancestral, Force, Drain and 4 mana. I Ancestral, but get 3 lands, and I am forced to use the FoW with the Drain to counter his Welder. I top deck a Welder, but he Tinkers for a Triskelion and kills it. I destroy the Trike, then Tinker up my own Triskelion. It gets him down to 7, while he uses the Crucible of Worlds and Strip Mine to make my Trike my last egg in the basket. He gets an Ancestral I believe, then a Duplicant, killing my Trike. I shoot it once, and him twice, and somehow, he's then at 4 life. But I have nothing in play. I need to get the Lotus/Yawgmoth's Will, but do not.
And then he casts Welder, Smokestack, Tangle Wire, etc...
And I lose.
In life, you have winners and you have losers, and we have a very worthy winner. I wish it could have been me, but I guess it wasn't meant to be. I played my heart out at this tournament, and it was a fantastic experience from the first elf that hit play, to that damned Duplicant that ruined everything.
Part 2, DecklistMaindeck4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
4 Brainstorm
4 Thirst for Knowledge
4 Goblin Welder
1 Sundering Titan
1 Platinum Angel
1 Mindslaver
1 Pentavus
3 Blood Moon
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Tinker
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will
5 Mox
1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
1 Darksteel Citadel
4 Volcanic Island
2 Underground Sea
4 Polluted Delta
1 Flooded Strand
5 Island
1 Library of Alexandria
Sideboard3 Oath of Druids
2 Tropical Island
1 Gaea's Blessing
1 Triskelion
3 Mogg Salvage
2 Lava Dart (or Fire/Ice, forgot)
3 Super-Secret Anti-Oath Tech (SSAOT)
As you can see, it's not precisely a standard Control Slaver deck. It's a lot more like 4-color Welder Control with 3 maindeck Blood Moons. They proved exceedingly strong that day, since Toronto is the home of hate-decks. It really did help vs. Wastelands and other crap, and I only really needed Black or Green ONCE in any given game, and with 5 Islands, which stay, since almost nothing can kill them now (Titan), I was set for blue. I really can't see running this deck in Toronto with less than 3 now.
The Oath sideboard was an interesting tactic Arend (special_k) and I thought about. The problem with this deck, as demonstrated in the first round against Adam, is random aggro decks that can just overwhelm you fast. You can't really slaver them too well, since their disruption won't hit them too hard, and they will just keep on coming at you. Even the two games I did win against him, I did so at zero life. Not a pleasant place to be, with 4 Naturalize, 4 Scrappers and 4 Zealots. I didn't get Oath fast enough to make it count though, and I had to Oath twice until I got Angel (welder is randomly in there, but I didn't need it at that time). For future tournaments, I will take a better anti-aggro SB, and a more general-purpose one, since I would only bring in the Oath in random match-ups. I would up the count of F/I or Lava Dart, and up the count of Triskelions, and maybe put in 3 REB or 3 Sphere of Resistance, or other anti-combo stuff. Crypts?
The Mogg Salvages are good against Fish, but horrible against other things. They have been replaced by Rack and Ruins.
As for the 4 main-deck artifacts, I find the Slaver less and less useful. I can't see sideboarding it out, but it's down to 1, and I am happy with the config. Titan is often more useful, since it's a HUGE beatstick and can kill mana bases, when I cannot get the Blood Moon out. I was considering adding the Colossus, for some random beatings, but I think it's far inferior to Titan, even though the 7/10 sometimes cannot punch through as well. It's something to consider, but in the future, with a 3 Triskelion sideboard, punching through random stuff will be easier. And if not, just get Pentavus (main Tinker target anyhow) or Angel.
Fact or Fiction maindeck is often useful as an uber Thirst for Knowledge and a Mana Drain sink, but otherwise, 4 mana isn't that easily achievable. You usually want to cast it EOT with a Force backup, at which point, it shines, as have some free breathing room next turn anyhow.
Finally, the mana base is very strong, and I am happy with it. I was often debating cutting an Underground Sea for something else, but having 2 never really bothered me too much, and the extra Darksteel Citadel (I had 2 before) isn't quite as useful. I generally need only 1-2 welding targets, and I get them. I often even just hard-cast one of the big threats, which generally has the ability to go all the way. 5 Islands is great.
Part 3, Canadian MetagameZherbus wrote a bit about this in his latest article on SCG, and here's a couple of things:
First, the reason the 2 decklists were missing was a misunderstanding (Mark's 3-color-Tog, and mine). We got asked during the game where, and we both mumbled and waived around, and I think the consensus Jeff got was that they are to NOT post them. I cannot talk about Mark's list, as I am not sure what all was in it (as I said, he got bad luck that game), but it did have some crazy/nasty surprises. Above is mine. I only would like to keep the 3 cards in the sideboard secret for now. Just in case.
Secondly, the Canadian meta-game, and the problem with only analyzing the top-8 (which is logical, as analyzing 60-160 decks each time is lunacy). You don't get the entire picture of it. You don't see the X-1-1 and X-2 decks which didn't make it, and in Toronto's case, the myriad array of hate-decks that you face (fish with 18! anti-workshop cards). That's where stuff gets wacky, not in the Top-8 necessarily. For example, at a Hamilton Type 1 tourney last weekend, I faced the "disputed" Ontario Provincials Champion (Type 2 or Block or whatever other lame-ass format), playing Suicide black. He sided in 13! cards against the deck above (with a vastly different sideboard), and played them all. Tormod's Crypts, Planar Void, 8 Edicts (not sure how many MD), Null Rods... I tinkered for Pentavus and won. Hate doesn't work, but there's a LOT of people which don't get this. People modify their deck so harshly, they only have a shot against very few decks... and it's that you have to face.
That 18! anti-workshop fish deck I mentionned above, sided out most of their win conditions, and would just win with Artifact Mutation. Oh, yeah. That's clever.
Playing in Waterbury or SCG P9, you face off against strong players with strong decks. Stuff makes sense.
Playing in Toronto, you face off again a mine-field of random hate, which makes it exceedingly difficult to win. Strong players still do well, generally. Look at the top 8 above. Steve Wolfman and Ian Smith are among the top 5 players in Ontario, Shawn Stewart, Mark Sims and Duncan McGregor are less renown, but just as skilled. Glenn Miller and Rob Hackney had somewhat prototypical hate-decks with smart metagame choices (less than 18! anti-one-deck-card). And me. Peter and Rich and Arend and Lam just barely missed the top-8, and as did the Dragon-loving Listowel people. Strong players, with enough knowledge and preparation, will prevail, but the first few times you are thrown in this mettle, you will get crushed.
Keep in mind, it's not the deck, it's the player.
