[Report] West Springfield Time Walk 12/19

[jCoKn]

So I've been somewhat out of the real type 1 scene for a while, as I've been going to school in Ottawa, Canada... where the Type 1 community is essentially just starting to grow. So on the night of my return, I'm pleased to be told there's a tourney like 2 hours away, so I'm like meh whatever. This means I only get like 4 hours of sleep but hey who needs it?

Come morning, I meet up with teammates Ryan and Tariq in Danbury and set off on our trek to Springfield. We end up being some of the first ones there (I'd have much rather slept in...) but still, it leaves time for me to figure out what the hell I'm gonna do with my deck. I had no useful sideboard for the deck I thought i might play, TPS, so I crafted one with what useful cards I could find, most notably Cranial Extraction, I'll get to this later.

On to the report;

Round 1: Jaris with TriniStax

Unfortunately, this is the match I remember the least as I was freezing cold in the back corner, and not really thinking about what I was doing properly Still, I remember in game 1 Rebuilding all his lock components and having all the moxes I had to sac to Stax willed back in. Sooooo sweet. Jaris was frustrated in game 3, his deck gave him nothing but lots of Crucibles and wastes. Basic lands > that.

I boarded in my Fluxes, Hurkyl's and Platz.

Round 2: Chris? with Elves

I noticed at the beginning of the tourney, I saw too many tribal decks for my likes... elves, goblins, zombies, soldiers... Oooh boy. But yet, in round 1, I was only sitting 2 tables down from where Ray Robillard (iamfishman) got smashed with belcher by this guy, so I'm figuring some crazy elvish artifact hate... I'm curious.

Game 1 I empty most of my hand on turn 1 (playing 2nd) and cast Jar, holding back on the activation for a turn. Sadly, I wasn't expecting the almight Viridian Shaman to come and rain on my parade. A few Priest of Titania's and Sylvan Recuiters laters, I was finished.

I don't board anything in.

Game 2, I play first and just do the TPS thing with first turn Necro.

Game 3, He goes land, mox, chalice 1 which really hurts me with my hand of 2x dark ritual, brainstorm and vamp tutor + land/mox. This game gets dragged out quite a bit as I realize he isn't throwing everything down at me such as he's leaving mana untapped, always. His only creatures were 2x Priest of Titania so i figured, he's holding on to crazy tech, or his entire hand is 1cc elves. Turns out I was right, and once I draw into D.Tutor and fetch my Tinker > Colossus, I expect a response now, or never. He draws, wellwisher, and I pound for 3 turns for the win. He reveals his hand of all 1cc stuff.

Must say though, that is the PIMPest elf deck I have and will ever see. Beta power, DCI foil elves. Savage.

That puts me to 2-0, and as I check up on my teammates, Tariq is 1-1 and Ryan is 1-0-1.

Round 3, Tristan with SuperGro

In round 2, I saw that he was playing some sort of UG? control deck, so I expected Dryads and probably Togs.

Game 1 I double duressed on turns 1-2 and had force backup for my tinker > colossus, though it was not needed. This is after he had laid a dryad, but it only got up to be a 3/3 or something before it was forced to chump.

I board in Cranial Extractions, Platinum Angel, and Rushing River.

Game 2, I go turn 1 land, duress, turn 2 Cranial Extraction > Quirion Dryad. I meet no counters, and flick through his library where I see Mystic Enforcers, Meddling Mages and Dryads and I'm like WTF... SuperGro?? Haven't seen  it in ages, but I fear the Meddling Mages, since he's got one in hand. The game goes draw-go for a few turns, him lacking a white to cast mage, when I decide to bust it all out for a Desire for 6, which meets Stifle! Dismayed, I begin shuffling my library in disbelief of the FoW in hand, without the blue to pitch. I finish shuffling, offer him to cut, he just nods and I reveal Ancestral Recall. Uh oh. Top top that off, recall gives me mana crypt and Will, so I desired for a helluva lot more. And won.

I leave the table hearing; I shoulda cut... I shoulda cut...

At 3-0, with 5 rounds and 32 people, I'm sure 3-0-2 makes so I figure I'm safe to draw in. Plus, after this round I end up with the highest tiebreakers as well, so I'm fairly certain I'm in.

Round 4, Pat Brennan with 5c oath

We played a few games for fun, pre-board, where I was mauled by Colossi bearing Dragon breath, and wings. There was also a Serra Avatar main, I might add. We ID.

Round 5, John Buda playing Dragon

I get paired down, and end up playing John, who unfortunately needs a win to make top8. We discuss over tiebreakers, and how one of the 3-1-1's won't make it. I'm concerned however, since Tariq is at 3-1 and needs a win vs. Hale (purple hat) with wMUD, and also Ryan needs a win vs. EBA. Tariq is in a do-or-die situation, but I'm conerned If I just give John a win, if Ryan can still make the top 8 due to low tiebreakers. He assures me he can, so I give up the win. In retrspect, I feel that it's wrong to do that, and will never do it again, as it nearly kept Ryan out of the top 8. Even though his opponent scooped to him (his opp only had 6 pts), he was 9th after the 5th round, yet however luckily, one of the finalists had to go home! Ryan mises his way in!

The top 8 looked like

Jon (me- TPS) vs. Pat (5c Oath)
Tristan (Supergro) vs. Travis (Metalworker/TPS?)

Tariq (Oath w/ wishes) vs. Ryan (Scepter control) <Both teammates
John (Dragon) vs. Chris (wMUD)

Top 8: Pat again

He wins the die roll... note I have not yet won a die roll today. Going 2nd really really sucks.

He does the usual Oath thing, turn 1 Orachrd, mox, oath, and I get to sit back and wait to have him get both Colossi out, then hope to Rebuild em back. Well, he has force and I don't, so I lose.

I board in my Extractions, Rushing River, Platinum Angel, and Hurkyl's Recall.

I go first, and kick it off with duress taking his mana leak.  He plays Gemstone, go. I go land, Dark rit, Extraction > Oath. He cringes, digs with Brainstorm, finds nothing, and lets me rip out his oaths. I notice he's boarded out his serra avatar, and all he's got is colossi. We both play draw-go for a while, until he D.Tutor's, which next turn reveals Arcane Lab. This is bad for me, since I'm a noob and I boarded out my chain of vapor for the recall. We joke about how the only way for us to win is via our colossi, as I notice he plays null rod. Another bad one. I'm left with like 2 land, and a hand full of Y.Will brokenness. He slowly but surely plays lands, whilst I find a few more myself and find my Demonic Tutor, which I'm extremely tentative to play, since I'm sure he's got some kind of counter, and I can't use force. I asuume he was thinking " counter the spell, not the tutor" so he lets me find my tinker, and I just hold it back. I allow him to ramp up to 11 for casting colossus, meanwhile he gives me 3 tokens, and he's taking burns from CoB's. I force it, and he tries to force back, but I point to hus lab, and he's like " er... yeah". Since he's tapped out, I take the risk of tinkering, praying for no FoW, which resolves, getting me my Platinum Angel, and between it, and the few tokens I got, I swung all the way.

Game 3 was somewhat similar, he starts out with land, go. I go lotus> mana vault > Extraction which meets Force, but I force back! I once again nab his Oaths and realize that he got scared of extraction, and took out one of his 2 colossi for the avatar. This of course buys me a lot of time, during which I set up for a huge Will. I go LED, Y.will, saccing, throwing a twister into grave. Replay LED, lotus, and go for twister. I have UUUBBB floating and like 5 of spells. And my twister hand gies me nothing. I think I had like 1 playable spell, and then tendrils, so I did cranial into his colossus, then tendrils him for 16, putting him at 2 after he burned twice off CoB, and me at 30-something. I spend countless turns drawing garbage, taking bolts from crypt,  I eventually just drew into Bargain which I forced through, and ended it.

**This brings me to the argument part of the report. Cranial Extraction single handedly won me both those games, as well as some in the swiss. Some italian lists are playing it, and many of the Europeans here vouch for it, but it seems like the larger part of the American community dislikes it, thinking the cc too high, and that it's unresolvable. In a deck like TPS, I'll have to disagree. With duress and FoW you can push it through, and all the fast mana makes it come down early, so you'll likely only have to play around one if not no counters. It WINS games, and it reveals your opponent's hand, as well as his library to you, so you know exactly what you have to play around, and what to hold back on. The card may be unplayable in traditional control lists, but for something like TPS, a controllish combo deck, I think it fits the plan quite perfectly.**

Tariq beats Ryan, John beats Chris, and Tristan beats Travis, and luckily I'm not paired with my teammate, so Tristan gets to try for revenge.

Game 1 was just gross. I had a retardedly broken hand and was stopped short by a well timed counter. However, a topdecked Will set things straight

Game 2, I boarded the same as in the prelims. I set 7 aside, and watch as he mulls all the way to 4. At this point I'm rather confident as I pick up my hand, bearing turn 1 extraction. It gets forced, then during his turn he recalls! Not a bad 4 cards! The game gets drawn out, until I force through Bargain, draw 15 cards, cast tendrils for 20 > Stifle. I sigh, dig 1 card deeper, and find FoW with Windfall to pitch. Finals! Bring it!

Or not? Tariq beats Dragon and things are good for our team, and we take the walk and the $100, Tariq takes the walk, I take the money, and some of his, of course, and we head out for NY in the terrible icy road conditions. By the way, if you're ever here again, go to the Ground Round nearby and just order a plate of their cinnamon triangle desserts. Their dopeness factor approaches that of Watebury's.

Props:
-The Beanie Exchange, a clean, well-run store that put on a great tournament. The staff was great and the tourney ran smoothly. Thanks!
-My teammates, for top8'ing.
-Ryan especially, for top8'ing with SCEPTER CONTROL!!!!! S4V4G3!!
-My opponents: all were friendly and all played competitive decks.
-Ryan's mom, for the lift and meals
-Cranial Extraction, for being the winnar in countless games.

Slops:
-Tariq, for assuming after he drained Hale's metalworker, that it was his turn. He untapped and drew a card. You = stupid.
-Me, for losing a game to a Viridian Shaman. Boo.
-Mother Nature, for making us drive like 7 mph on interstate 84 on the way back.
-Half of my sideboard, for being completely useless and never got boarded in.

I'll leave with my list:

Myoglucosamide
(or some other toxic chemical that was on the back of Tariq's Powerade bottle) - (or just TPS)

4 Force of Will
4 Duress
4 Brainstorm
4 Dark Ritual
2 Tendrils of Agony
2 Rebuild
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Fact of Fiction
1 Necropotence
1 Memory Jar
1 Mind's Desire
1 Gush
1 Windfall
1 Darksteel Colossus
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Timetwister
1 Tinker
1 Yawgmoth's Bargain
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Mana Vault
1 Mana Crypt
1 Lion's Eye Diamond
1 Lotus Petal
1 Sol Ring
1 Chrome Mox
1 Black Lotus
5 Moxen
2 Swamp
2 Island
4 Polluted Delta
2 Underground Sea
1 Underground River
1 Tolarian Academy

SB:
3 Cranial Extraction
2 Damping Matrix - useless
2 Tormod's Crypt - useless
2 Stifle - useless
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Platinum Angel
1 Rushing River
3 Energy Flux

Jon Smithers

EDIT: BrassMan's Type 4 stack is retardedly fun. It's especially fun when I Acquire Ray's Staff of Domination. That's always fun. Fun Fun Fun.

[Frappie]

jCoKn: I go LED, Y.will, saccing, throwing a twister into grave.

is this how it happened? cause if so ya know like using led to cast y will and putting twist in the grave, i heard there are problems with that.

[PipOC]

jCoKn: I go LED, Y.will, saccing, throwing a twister into grave.

is this how it happened? cause if so ya know like using led to cast y will and putting twist in the grave, i heard there are problems with that.

I believe he meant Play LED, Play Will, In response sac LED discarding twister.

[jCoKn]

Yes, I cast will, then responded with sac'ing LED, putting Twister in grave. Sorry if that wasn't clear.

To try and keep this discussion going, what are good sideboard options for TPS?

-Cranial Extraction ?
-Hurkyl's Recall ?
-Platinum Angel ?
-Rushing River / Echoing Truth / Chain of Vapor / Other Bounce ?
-Energy Flux ?
-Stifle ?
-Spawning Pit / Claws of Gix ?
-Other Ideas ?

Let's assume you're building a SB for a general broad metagame, such as Waterbury for example. As I stated before half my SB was useless and I found that my worst matchups were obviously control, so I'm thinking maybe Defense Grid? The MD Rebuild obviously helped against Stax, which is an annoying matchup, especially if he uses MD Chalice, but still I felt I had the upper hand.

[Negator13]

I run a single Cunning Wish main so my board is mostly wish targets:

1 Darksteel Colossus (No MD)
1 Blue Elemental Blast
1 Hydroblast
1 Hurkylls Recall
1 Echoing Truth
2 Rebuild (+2 MD)
1 Gifts Ungiven (really good!)
2 Misdirection (could be the card you need vs. control)
1 Coffin Purge
2 Engineered Plague (Testing; meant for Welders and Spirit Tokens)
1 Skeletal Scrying
1 Cranial Extraction (only 1, as a tutor target)

EDIT: Actually, I run the Gifts Ungiven main. In its place in the SB I run the [mandatory] Brain Freeze.

[Osiris]

Yeah, so, Jon calls me at 10:30 Saturday night, and he's like, dude comeover and he comes and picks me up and I sleep over his place, my play a few games and go to sleep at about 3. The next morning I wake up at 8 something and we head off with his mom and we meet our friend Ryan and we get a ride up to the Beanie Baby Exchange. So we register out decks and we come up with different names for them, Ryan's was Liquid Hydration, Jon's was Maltodextrin and mine was Pyridoxine( the names came from my 64 oz. Powerade bottle). So I do some trading and I pick up a Foil Iridescent Angel and a Foil DCI Brainstorm. They put up the pairings and the games begin.

Match 1: Some guy with some artifact deck
Game 1: He goes first turn Trinisphere and I force it and then I play an Oath and he plays a Su Chi and I get Akroma and we attack each other until I'm at 4 and he's at 3, meanwhile he's been taking crypt damage and now it's all up to a die roll, so I call heads and he gets heads and thats game one.

Game 2: He goes first turn Trinisphere and I force it and then I play Mox, Orchard and Oath and that about ends the game.

Match 2: A guy with 5/3
Game 1: He wins the die roll and goes first and plays a trinisphere, it resolves. I playan island and pass, meanwhile I could have went first turn Oath. He plays some stuff and rapes me.

Game 2: I play a land and he plays a welder, it's good. Then I play another land. He plays thirst and pitches Jesters cap,welds it and I scoop.

Match 3: I play Buda using an artifact beats deck
Game 1: I play a land and a mox and he goes. He plays welder which I mana leak. Then I play an Oath and pass. he plays another welder and it resolves. I Oath up Akroma and swing until he's at 6 and then he play Duplicant and removes her. I then Oath up Spirit and swing for the game.

Game two:I lose this because I played Back to Basics an the wrong time but I could have won.

Game 3: I play first turn Oath and that ends the game.

Match 4: Some kid with Joblins
Game 1: He plays first turn Lackie and it's good then next turn he swings and poops out a Seige-Bang. I play an Oath. He swings and poops another Seige-Bang out and I go to 8. I Oath up Akroma and bring him to 5. Next turn he swings and I block Seige-Bang and because of a rules dispute he gets to undo his move, which is tottaly unfair and they were wrong, he taps two and "chucks" Seige at me and then he takes it back. I lose that game.

Game 2: Pretty much he plays Lackie, drops two Seiges and I brainstorm and next turn I wish for an Echoing Truth, I bounce all of his tokens. I win that game.

Game 3: This boils down to his getting a mounain to kill my Platinum Angel while next turn and he doesn't and I win that one.

Match 5: Hale with Trinistax
Game 1: He plays turn one Trinisphere. I play through it for a few turns and drop an Oath when I get three land and I get Akroma. He plays a few Tangle Wires and taps me down and eventually Spirit swings for the win.

Game 2: He muulies to 4 and plays a land and passes, I play an Island and pass back. Pretty much I get a game lose because I fetch and I draw a card because I thought he was done.

Game 3: This ends fast. My opening hand was Mox, Oath, Recall, Back to Basics, Orchard, Island and something else.

Now, my friends Jon and Ryan and myself make top 8.

Match 1: Ryan with Scepter-Control
Game 1: We play some stuff and I win with Akroma.

Game 2: I win this with Spirit.

What helped me win against Ryan was because my friend Jon made Scepter Control and we were play testing all nigth long and Ryan loved the deck so much that he played it and did well.

Match 2:A kid with Dragon
Game 1: He mullies to 5 and plays a bazzar and  a mox and Duresses. I play a Mox and a Fecthland. He then bazzars and goes to one card and then he tries to animate Worldgorger and I Mana Leak it. I then assume board control, I play Oath and I have to Wish and Stufle his Orchard so that I could give him more creatures and I waste it next turn and I win.

Game 2: He mullies to 6. He Duresses me and takes a Force. A few turns go by and I have a butt load of land and he has a Forest and a Swamp. This game I Intuinton three times, one for Oaths another for A.K.s and the other for Recall, Walk and Wish, gives me a Recall. Another few turns go by and I Oath up Akroma and Platinum Angel and I win.

I go to see how my friend Jon was doing and I tell him I lost and so he freaks out but he wins his match and then I'm like, "Sike", so we split, I get the Walk, yay, my first piece of power and he gets the 100 plus I give him 65. So, that concluded my day and I had a good time and it was cool having all three of us make top 8 and I hope everyone else had a good time as well.

Tariq Z

[Whatever Works]

How do you like gush in the maindeck??? I have always found that card to be just plain bad when i used it, and I was really happy with the results when i changed it to a maindeck gift ungiven (incredible in this deck)...

Do you find LED neccessary i found it to be somewhat situational for TPS, and not nearly as good in this deck as in other combo decks that abuse it more.

[johnstown713]

Yeah, the tourny was realy sweet.  The people there were nice and it was run very well.  I would be happy to go back.  Props to me and my team members of Power Posse for putting all 3 of us in the Top 8.


The bigest thing I would like to point out was one thing with this tourny.  It only cost 10 BUCKS.  This is the coolest thing ever and the guy who ran the tournament was not only a nice guy but the fact that thew entry was only 10 bucks was huge.  There is no reason the world shouldn't have been here.  I would post a report but they pretty much covered it.

[ill_Dawg]

@Negator13: Why the 1/1 hydroblast/BEB split? Unless oyou really fear the misdirection, BEB should just be better on the board because you can play it without a legal target to up storm.  

I'd use more scryings on the board to bring in against control, since finding more threats through 1-sided draw > throwing them away to resolve the current one, imo.

I agree with cutting LED, and maybe I missed it but I didn't see windfall on the list.  I'd make the swap.

-=ADAM=-

[jazzykat]

Holy shit boys! I can't believe you guys are doing so damn well. I am so proud (*tear*). I am still in Austria but be careful Jon and Tariq your arch nemesis Team Bloodmoon is growing stronger, with international alliances, beer, and women (actually I am growing stupider and doting in my old age but I had to say something menacing).

WELL DONE! and happpy holidays
Jazzy,
AKA: Franco

[Moxlotus]

@Negator13: Why the 1/1 hydroblast/BEB split? Unless oyou really fear the misdirection, BEB should just be better on the board because you can play it without a legal target to up storm.

You have it backwards.  Hydroblast can target anything ot up the storm count.

[jCoKn]

Hey, to address a few comments:

-Gush was fantastic for me all day. It saved me many wasted lands, and found my brokens faster. I don't think I'd cut it. Same goes for LED, it won me 2 games during the day, and in playtesting it was doing well. I wouldn't cut it either.

-Windfall was in the list, sorry I forgot to include it.

-$10 entry fees rock. It makes the tourney soo much more open to newer players ( i.e. those playing zombies, soldiers, elves, etc.)

And might I ask as to why you put BEBs / hydroblast in your side? Are you afraid of welders or something else? I'll try it out but I don't think BEB should really be necessary.