Hammer's Comic 1st place Report

15 people showed up to try and take home a Bazaar. Hammer decided to go with 4 rounds of swiss and a top 8. Really understanding how tournaments work, he didn't want a 3-1 to not make the final rounds. That is much more important than trying to keep a 2-2 out of the final rounds. A very good call if you ask me. I played in a tournament last week with only like 15 people and they cut to a top 4. Rich and I had an epic match that ultimately meant nothing. No matter which one of us won, we could not have made the top 4 even though our only loss was too the top seed of the tournament. Choosing to go with a top 8 is the kind of thing that makes me want to go back in the future. I ran my usual Control Slaver list.

Round 1 Fish

Game 1

I get a Mindslaver into the graveyard very early. He quickly gets a cloud of fairies and voidmage with a volcanic and another U source open. I cast welder hoping to kill the voidmage so I can do some broken things. He tries to bolt the welder. I know he has no counter from an earlier duress, so I force the bolt. I get slaver going and it's over from there.

Game 2

I let some null rods resolve and draw cards for a few turns. He has very little pressure and I eventually respond to a wasteland with a rack and ruin killing both null rods. My hand is very good at this point and I untap, play some card drawing and a blood moon. He actually had a hand full of red cards, so it was kind of funny. He had only mountains for the rest of the game and cast multiple lavamancers and bolted some of my welders. I had lava darts for the lavamancers. I let the welders die with a hand full of counters, as I didn't have a slaver in the yard yet. I eventually drew into the win

Round 2 RUG Madness

Game 1

After multiple careful studies his hand is terrible. He struggles to get a green source to go with his volcanic island. I get a goblin welder down early. I almost counter a mox emerald, but instead counter the mongrel that follows. I eventually establish a lock with two welders. I actually needed 2 because of wonder.

Game 2

He goes turn 1 careful study. I go turn 1 pearl, volcanic, time walk. Turn 2 strip mine, tinker for pentavus. I drop a welder and an Aether spell bomb as well. Those two, along with echoing truth keep his team completely absent from combat for 4 turns.

Round 3 Control Slaver

Game 1

At this point I'm getting really hungry. I no my play can deteriorate when I'm hungry or tired, so I try and stay sharp. I find the mirror is usually decided by mistakes. My opponent played without error as far as I could tell. The play that blew this game open was

Me with 2 cards in hand: Duress
Nick: TFK with one card in hand
Me: Force. I looked at a Citadel and wonder why, in the name of all that is holy I would make that play.

He proceeded to top deck a welder, for which I had no counter. On my turn I drew a land and proceeded to scoop to demonic for will.

Game 2

I decide to Draw??? I keep a hand with Pearl, Walk, Brainstorm, Force, Fetch, Volcanic, and Welder. Pretty good on the play, but not so much on the draw. He lays a land and ancestrals during my upkeep. I don't force it??? He is a few cards ahead the entire game. I scoop to a will after a bit.

Round 4 2 Land Belcher

My food has arrived, so I want to ID in and eat. My opponent is new to tournaments, and isn't interested. I might not top 8 if I lose. If I do lose and make it in, I'd be the 8th seed. That would mean playing the Control Slaver mirror that I already lost. I'd much rather win this one.

Game 1

I have card drawing but no force. He drops a first turn Belcher off living wish for Mishra's Workshop. I make the misplay of casting brainstorm instead of Thirst. On his turn he belches me for zero, hitting the taiga on the first card. On my turn I thirst, then brainstorm, but cannot find an out.

Of note this game, his first play was to play land grant and then riffle through his deck w/o passing priority. I had to call the judge on that. It is important that a player passes priority when no doing so could give change the gamestate. If a player sees extra cards or changes the order of their library when they are not allowed to, it is unfair and needs a penalty. The judge told him to slow down, a sort of warning. Good enough for me. For the rest of the day, he passed priority so it turned out as well as possible. That is the goal of rules enforcement, to make sure the game is played correctly.

As I'm looking through his deck, after the belch, I see a proxied mana cylix. I shake my head as I'm pretty certain that means he has over 10 proxies. P9+Workshop+Mana Cylix=11 proxies. I ask him and he insists he has 10. I go ahead and count, and he has 11. I have to call the judge to get it straightened out. He has a cylix that he swaps it out for and everything works out. I explain to him that in a big tournament, that kind of thing can result in a severe penalty. He was very apologetic, and will hopefully never make that mistake again.

Game 2

I'm hoping these games go more smoothly and they do. I again have no force, but I do have enough card drawing to make my deck work. I get out a welder, and eventually slave him for the win.

Game 3

He goes to 5 and says go. My hand again has no force, and is not really amazing. It does have a land, brainstorm, and a fetch, along with a slaver and multiple welders. Good enough Vs 5 and a missing first turn. I get things going pretty quickly and win with help from his welder.

So I end the swiss 3-1 with my only loss to the top seed. This makes me the number two seed.

Top 8 Belcher rematch

I've finally eaten and start to feel less foggy.

Game 1

My opening hand has Force, brainstorm x2 and some other goodness. I have control from the beginning of the game and eventually slave him for the win.

Game 2

His first turn is a land grant for a bayou showing a time twister and a xandid swarm & lotus that he played. I opened with ruby, welder, pearl, sol ring, volcanic, tinker pearl for slaver, mana crypt go. On his turn he attacks and hopes to draw a win of the twister. All he can do is get a Belcher into play. My new hand is even better than my first one, it includes library, lotus, and demonic. I slave him a few times and make him kill himself.

Top 4 Doomsday

Game 1

I duress and strip his only land. His deck stalled out for several turns, but all I could draw was a couple counters and a whole lot of land. I eventually get library going. His hand disruption clears the way for a necro. He pays 5 and discards one card EOT. On his next turn he duress’s me. I show him Mana Drain, Ancestral and Mindslaver. He takes Ancestral. He draws a ton more off necro, ready to win next turn. By this point I have like a million mana. I cast slaver with UUUU open. He forces. I drain. 2nd Main I slave him for game.

Game 2

His first turn duress takes my force, leaving me with just Mindslaver and goblin welder. On my turn I draw strip mine and play a welder. On his turn he lays a second underground sea and rituals out a doomsday. He only has two cards in hand at this point. I look though his library, and realize its force and a blue card. I assume he is going to pass back to me, and I'll strip his land, ending the game. He casts ancestral from his hand and fizzles out. He is very upset with himself. With the pile he made, the strip would have ended the game. He could have done the following.

Doomsday pile

Sapphire
Dark ritual
Black lotus
Mind's Desire
Beacon

from there he could have just played the sapphire, ancestraled down to the desire. Ritual and lotus would have brought the storm count up to make it 5 beacons to the dome.

Finals EBA

Game 1

He rolls a 9, I roll a 4. He gets down a first turn Meddling Mage naming Thirst for Knowledge. Good choice. I drop a welder and pass. His turn he drops a shadowmage. Things are followed up with a vidicate on my welder. I draw tons of mana and his 2nd mage actually names pentavus because I could easily hard cast him. Eventually his board is Mage(TFK) Mage(Pentavus) and shadowmage x2. I'm at 5 with an echoing truth and a tinker in hand. I had brainstormed back yawg will. On my turn I tinkered for lotus, willed, lotus, tinker for pentavus, land, welder, some card drawing and ship it back. I know his hand is just a basic island from before. On his turn, he draws and casts exhaulted. I let it resolve, as nothing mattered at that point. He attacked. I murdered the TFK Mage with the pentavus and echoing truthed the shadowmages. He passed back and I started slaving him repeatedly. I eventually drew into demonic which got the second welder for a lock.

Game 2

I blew this game big time. His first play was a turn 2 mage, which I forced. I started strong with a turn 2 time walk, turn 3 demonic for lotus, will, land, time walk, demonic. Like a retard, I grabbed blood moon over ancestral. He even had out a basic Island at this point. Unbelievably bad play. On my time walk turn I dropped a welder and the Blood Moon. With his island he BEB'ed the Blood Moon and then swords my welder with his tundra. At this point, I had 2 cards in hand Vs his 5. I struggle for a bit and then die to wizard beats.

Game 3

I board out Blood Moon after seeing a basic island, plains and swamp in his deck. This game went perfectly. His opening was 3 strips. I had library first, drawing a card before it was wasted. The next strip was responded to with a brainstorm. Strip #3 hit my underground after I had demoniced with it. His deck basically did nothing for those 3 turns, while mine gave me a insanely good hand. By the time he was ready to cast threats my hand was full of counters. I let an angel resolve when I was certain I'd get slaver going in enough turns to save me. For 3 turns, he'd attack with angel and I'd TFK EOT. I eventually tinkered with UUUU open and like triple force, double drain and a welder in hand. Slaver locked up the game from there and I killed him with the tag team of FTK and Pentavus.

I cannot speak highly enough of Hammer's Comics. The tournament was well run, and the people were great. Good competition and an interesting meta game will certainly have me coming back if possible.